


The Junkertown Mission

by weird_biscuits



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Junkertown (Overwatch), Spies, Undercover Missions, little bit of romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-04
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-01-29 08:44:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 76,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12627276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weird_biscuits/pseuds/weird_biscuits
Summary: Less than a year into his stint with Overwatch after being kicked out of his Outback home, Jamie learns that he has to help lead a mission back into Junkertown to retrieve information the very future of Overwatch relies on. More of an emphasis on mystery, action and plot than anything else.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I really wanted to get this story out as soon as I heard a Junkertown map was coming to Overwatch and I’ve been working on it for the last couple of months. There are some references in this story to previous events that I’ve sort of head-cannoned/intend to write in a future fanfic and I probably should have written that story first but, what-the-hey, I’m pulling a George Lucas here and I’m putting out the middle bit first. I might write the prequel later. Honestly, you could read this as a sequel to any other Symmrat get-together fic out there if you like.

It was dark.

Emily was cold and tired as she hurried home. A cool autumn breeze blew her hair out of her flushed face and sent golden leaves skittering across the damp pavement.

Emily turned in at her gate and started up the short path to her front door, one arm grasping at a shopping bag of groceries, the other fumbling for her keys in her handbag. To top it all off, the message tone on her phone was sounding relentlessly for her attention. Couldn’t she get a moment’s peace? She assumed it was Lena checking in, or perhaps one of the group chats she had been invited to. Someone only had to send a titbit of news through and there would be a frenzy of text messages as everyone joined in the conversation. She despised group chats so much, she had started avoiding her phone of late.  
Finally, she dug her keys out of an inner pocket in her bag and went to stick it in to the lock to the front door. That’s when she noticed the door was already slightly ajar.

She flipped a few strands of red hair out of her eyes and stood staring at the door in confusion for a full minute.  
_That’s strange_ , she thought to herself. _Did I leave it unlocked? And didn’t I leave the front light on?_ In her haste to get to the shops before closing time, it was possible she hadn’t closed the door properly behind her but she was usually so careful…

Hesitantly, she pushed the door open and peered into the darkness beyond. She couldn’t see anything so she fumbled for the light switch by the door. Flicking the switch did nothing; the house remained dark. She flicked it a few times more for good measure, but it remained useless. She looked into the dark of the house. All was silent.

Her pulse was rising, heart thumping in her chest, yet something beckoned her forward as she took a step into the front room. Her house, _her lovely house_ , something was _wrong_ …

The streetlight behind her lent only minimal illumination. In the dim light, she could make out upturned and broken furniture scattered around the room. Picture frames had been ripped from the walls leaving holes in some instances and the curtains that framed the window at the far side of the room was torn and barely hanging from a single ring. The sofa cushions had been slashed and there were bits of foam everywhere. Drawers had been pulled out roughly, spilling their contents across the floor. Looking down, she noticed the carpet was strewn with broken glass, torn papers, and various household items. It was like a bomb had gone off in here.

Emily dropped her bags noisily to the floor. Her mind struggled to piece it all together. It was simply _impossible_. She had only been gone not fifteen minutes. _How did this happen?_ The longer she stared at it, the more she hoped the disarray would vanish conveniently or she would wake up from this strange dream to her neat and tidy home. But no matter how long she stood in silent wonder, the scattered papers and broken furniture remained.

So filled with dread and frozen in place was Emily, that she did not hear the approaching footsteps.

A hand grabbed hold her shoulder from behind. The unexpected touch seemed to break whatever spell had taken hold of Emily, and she twisted with alarm to fight off the intruder. She lashed out with her fist but it was caught easily out of the air.  
“Emily! Emily! It’s alright! It’s me, love!”

Emily almost collapsed from sheer relief. There stood in front of her was her girlfriend, Lena.

Emily gratefully allowed Lena to pull her into a hug. “Thank god!” Emily cried. “What on earth…?”

“I came as soon as I got the alarm… When you didn’t answer your phone… Oh-my-god, Emily, I was so scared!” Lena pulled Emily close against her.

Emily was still trying to process what was happening. Her girlfriend was standing here with her in the front room of their house, but last Emily knew, Lena was going to be away for work for a long time. She hadn’t been prepared or expecting to see her here and now at all.

“What’s going on?” Emily asked, hoping Lena could shed some light on why their home looked like a tornado had come blowing through. “I just went down to the shops and when I got back, everything looked like this!” Emily gestured to the mess behind her.

“No time!” Lena quipped and tugged on Emily’s wrist, trying to lead her out of the door. “Its not safe here, love. I’ve got to get you back to the others!”

“What do you mean?” Emily looked shaken.

“I ran ahead to check on you. Jack’s none too happy about that. They’ll be here any moment!” Lena kept looking up at the tops of the buildings around them as though she was expecting someone to be up there watching them. “I’ll probably get in trouble for running off but all I could think about was you!”

Under normal circumstances, Emily would have expected wolfish grin from Lena after a statement like that, but Lena looked nervous and the vice-like grip she had on Emily’s wrist was almost painful. She let Lena lead her out the front door and down the steps to the footpath.

“In trouble with who? You mean the people you work with?” Emily asked as they rounded the letter box and set off up the street. Lena cast glances occasionally behind them to check they weren’t being followed.

“I’ll explain everything as soon as you’re safe!” Lena replied. “I had the place rigged with a silent alarm just in case. It must have gone off when someone broke in.”

Emily’s mind just could not keep pace with all that was happening this evening. “Alarm…? Wait, what are you even doing in England. You’re supposed to be in Gibraltar!”

They reached the top of the street and Lena turned left, tugging Emily behind her. “We were in the area, tracking some local Talon activity. And thank god too! What if I _had_ been in Gibraltar.”

Suddenly Lena stopped and Emily bumped into her from behind. “Hey! Why’d you…?”  
“That’s it!” Lena cried, turning to look at Emily with dawning realisation. “That’s why Talon was here! They planned to break into our house!”

“Talon?” Emily knew only a little about the international terrorist organisation from what Lena had told her. “You think Talon broken into our house?”

Lena looked increasingly frightened as her mind began to piece it all together. Her face was pale. “On the one night we know they’re active in the area, ours is the house that gets broken into? It can’t be coincidence. They must have found out where we live… Oh god, the stolen data Winston told me about… Were they looking for information on me? Or to kidnap you?”

Emily gripped Lena by the shoulders, hoping to calm her. “Lena, what is going on?”

Lena focused on Emily’s concerned face. “We’re in more danger than I thought,” she replied simply. She pulled out two pistols and motioned for Emily to go ahead. “I’ll watch our backs. We’ve got to get back to the others. Now.”

Emily nodded and the two set off at a jogging pace in the direction Lena had indicated.

  

\--

 

Jamie woke with a start.

Someone was shaking him roughly awake. The covers were ripped unceremoniously back. Peering up through bleary eyes into the dim morning light of his small room, he saw the rough outline of his bodyguard, Roadie. “Get up. Team meeting,” he said, looming over Jamie, before turning and lumbering away.

Jaime rubbed at his face with his good hand and groped about for some clothes to pull on. He was going to give Jack Morrison an earful for scheduling a team meeting at sparrow-fart. There had better be a good excuse for summoning him so early.

He pulled himself into a sitting position and started to fit his prosthetic leg into place. He usually took the leg off when he slept but kept the prosthetic arm on, an old habit born of a need to always be ready for any kind of trouble even when trying to catch a few snatches of sleep.

Of course, he supposed, there hadn’t been much need of late to sleep in a state of constant readiness to snap awake and defend himself here at Overwatch’s Gibraltar base. He and Roadie had been working for Overwatch as field agents for almost a year now. It had been a wild ride so far, travelling to distant lands, blowing up all sorts things he’d never dreamed he’d one day get the chance to, but it had been one of the best decisions of his life.

Back before he had trained up as a field agent, he had always been talented with explosives and was reasonably good at protecting himself. He and Roadie had travelled the world getting into impossible scrapes, pilfering the un-pilferable, and breaking out of the highest-security prisons, but they could always fall back on Jamie’s ingenuity in a pinch and his knack for knowing how to make things go ‘boom.’ Nothing could stop them back then. It wasn’t long before his talents with explosives became known to certain international organisations. Talon was the first to approach him. Jamie had given a fair amount of consideration to what they were offering too. He had also been contacted by Lena Oxton of Overwatch who offered double Talon’s initial offer of compensation. In the end, it was the money that tipped Jamie’s decision-making process in favour of Overwatch. Money ruled his life and how could he refuse?

It wasn’t until after he joined Overwatch that he realised how feared he had become during his years on the run. He had built quite the reputation in the short few years since he had left Junkertown. The wary looks from the other agents were not lost on him. Lena admitted one day that they had launched an aggressive recruitment campaign purely because they wanted to recruit Jamie and his bodyguard before Talon could. They knew Talon would have had a distinct advantage if they had successfully made the two Junkers into Talon agents.

Jamie had changed a lot since his pre-Overwatch days. No more living on the run; his life was comfortable now. He could not deny the three square meals a day and sleeping in a real bed with a roof over his head had been small comforts he had come to appreciate immensely. Maybe this freedom-fighting malarkey wasn’t such a bad idea anyway? He’d actually made friends here too. Jamie had once told himself he would never trust anyone ever again; it never worked out. Well, maybe the one caveat was that he trusted Roadie enough to look after him. It took a great deal of time working together with his new comrades, building the trust between them, before Jamie truly felt like he was part of a team that could work well together.

Not only had he made friends, but he’d met the girl of his dreams here. When Satya had come into his life, he had never felt like this about anyone before. She was beautiful and perfect like a cut sapphire that had come tumbling out of the Indian subcontinent. Whereas, he was rough and tumble, impulsive, and nothing like her, or so he had thought at first. Their relationship was still relatively new, and they were taking things slow, but there was a fierceness in his desire to protect her. He took notice how passionately she fought to make the world a better place, and she showed him that there was a lot of potential in Overwatch’s missions to change the world.

But all of that had come under threat in the last few months.

Several attempts had been made to kidnap or lure Overwatch agents away from the safety of their headquarters in Gibraltar. Jamie himself survived a close scrape with kidnappers during a mission who, at first, seemingly wanted to take him for one of the many bounties on his head. If it hadn’t been for Roadie, Jamie wasn’t sure what would have happened to him.

Of course, the whole thing reeked of Talon involvement. It was nothing out of the usual for Talon to try and interrupt Overwatch operations. Talon was a terrorist organisation hell bent on obstructing Overwatch’s mission for world peace. It also wasn’t unusual for them to make attempts on Overwatch agents’ lives, but never had they targeted Overwatch quite so insidiously. Both Winston and Jack Morrison, their most senior agents, were concerned with the increasing frequency with which agents were being besieged and were convinced this couldn’t all be a coincidence. The Overwatch leadership team was on edge and everyone knew something had to be done.

It all came to a head when Lena reported that a group of burglars had attacked her and Emily’s home in London just two weeks ago and some of Lena’s personal effects had been taken. That was when they knew their systems had been compromised. Talon had accessed personal data belonging to Overwatch agents and was using it to locate and attack their loved ones.

Luckily, Emily hadn’t been home at the time and no one had been hurt in the attack. The thought of what could have happened to her if she had been home at the time was chilling. Emily had been placed under Overwatch’s protection at Lena’s request, and so it would have been easy enough to learn of her whereabouts through the stolen data. All the same, everyone was in a frenzy. Could Talon come after their loved ones too?

Jamie pulled himself upright from the bed and set off hobbling on stiff legs to the meeting space. It was rumoured a meeting would be called soon to announce their next course of action following the incident at Emily and Lena’s house. Hopefully Jack had come across some kind of lead that could help them prevent further attacks from Talon.

He was one of the last to arrive. He was always too slow on his peg leg but he was pleased when no one gave him any curry about it. It was a full team meeting so everyone was required to attend including field agents and non-combatant staff. They were all sitting in a rough circle on any available chair or table edge the Gibraltar base Briefing Room. It was also the only space that was large enough to accommodate a full staff gathering. Jamie had never seen so many Overwatch members in one place. So this was quite serious then?

Jamie spotted Roadie nearby and took a seat next to him on the edge of a storage crate. Satya wove through the crowd and took a seat on this other side, exchanging morning greetings with the two Junkers. Jamie was not a morning person at the best of times but he greeted her in return. He was tired having been up almost all night preparing grenades in advance of their next mission and he hadn’t even had a cup of coffee yet. The rude awakening hadn’t helped his mood either.

As soon as everyone was settled, Lena started the meeting. “We appreciate you all being here for such an early start, but we have some important news to share,” she said. Jamie noted that her face was drawn and tired, like she hadn’t had much sleep in days. “You all know about the recent attacks. Well, we have had some leads thanks to Winston and Athena’s investigation,” Lena continued.

“That’s right,” Athena’s disembodied voice chimed in. “We understand Talon has been involved in the recent attacks…”

“No duh…” Jamie muttered under his breath.

“...but the difficulty we have now is pinpointing their headquarters and the location of the stolen data. If we can retrieve the data and shut down Talon’s operations, we believe we can guarantee the safety of our agents once again.”

“This is actually a golden opportunity,” Winston added. He was seated comfortably in one of many tractor tires that dotted the Gibraltar base. He seemed to prefer them over any other kind of chair. “We’ve done some investigating and have found something that could lead us right to Talon headquarters. We have an opportunity to stop them once and for all.”

There was an exchange of surprised looks around the ranks.

“By an extreme stroke of luck, one of the burglars at Lena’s home dropped something,” Winston continued. “It was a communication device. There really wasn’t much that could be extrapolated from it at first as it was heavily encrypted. However, Athena has managed to find a packet of information in the device relating to a monetary transaction, and in particular an identifying code.”

There was a projection of said code on a holographic screen above their heads for visual representation. The series of letters and digits really meant nothing to Jamie. He sipped thoughtfully on his lychee boba, half-sweet that he kept with in him in his canteen at all times.

Winston went on, “We understand this to be a transaction number from a bank where a large sum of money was transferred to one of the burglar’s private accounts.”

“We are in the process of tracking down the people involved with the burglary but this will take some time as this will likely be one of the burglar’s many accounts the money will have already passed through,” Lena added. “Our main focus however will be to track down where the payment _came from_. This will show us who the burglars are working for.”

“If we can find out who created the transaction, it would an exponential help in leading us to Talon’s headquarters,” Athena said brightly. “We’ve located the originating bank where the money was sent from. The money was sent from a branch in Alice Springs, Central Australia.”

Jamie spat his boba tea out all over the floor in front of him in alarm. “WHAT?”

Many heads turned to look at him. “But… but, that’s not far from Junkertown!” he exclaimed, tea still dripping from his chin.

“Precisely,” Winston said. “Obviously we don’t think Talon has set up headquarters in remote Central Australia however we do think that they have used a series of bank accounts from distant locations to make the transaction and this is one of them.”

“It is strange though that this transaction would be made from such a remote location and so close to the place where two of our agents originated,” Lena added. “It can’t be a coincidence and we suspect involvement from someone local.”

Winston sighed before saying, “We think someone in Junkertown was involved with the burglary and may be linked with Talon.” Winston’s mouth was set in a disapproving frown. “If we can track the individual involved down, we can interrogate them and hopefully they will lead us to Talon.”

“This is the best lead yet we’ve had in trying to infiltrate and interrupt Talon operations,” Lena said. “This is a chance to strike at them first.” She turned her attention to Jamie who was mopping up the front of his t-shirt with some napkins Satya had helpfully supplied to him. “We’ll need your help, Jamie,” Lena said. Jamie looked up in alarm and saw a fierce determination on Lena’s face that he had never seen before.

“Me?” Jamie asked.

“You’re familiar with the local terrain and culture. We’ll need your expertise to help us get into Junkertown.”

“Oh, ye… yeah. Right-o,” he stuttered. “There’s—uh—just one problem. I’m sorta not welcome around them parts anymore.”

“We know,” Lena said without concern. “You got kicked out for not paying taxes.”

“We’ve agreed to settle this payment on your behalf, Jamie.” Winston said calmly. “The difficult part has been trying to contact the Queen of Junkertown to make an offer.” Jamie nodded in understanding and said no more, hoping no one would ask him what the tax was for exactly.

“It seems Junkertown has closed off all communication with the outside world. We will need to settle the outstanding taxes in person, and get the Queen to help us locate the person involved with Talon,” Lena stated. “As a show of good faith—and we’ve already discussed this with Satya—we are going to offer Satya’s architectural services to the Queen to help make some improvements to Junkertown’s fortifications. That should convince the Queen to help us.”

Jamie was quiet for some time before saying, “It’s not gonna be easy…”

“What will happen if we do not succeed?” Satya asked from her seat beside him.

Jack who had been wholly silent the entire time as he observed the exchange, shifted in his seat to address the gathering. “If we cannot confirm the safety of our agents, and their friends and families, we’ll have no choice but to terminate Overwatch,” he said.

There was a smattering of murmurs as everyone digested what Jack had just said. “But that means Talon wins,” Jaimie said with a look of consternation.

“It doesn’t mean the fight is over,” Jack clarified. “It would just mean a complete restructure; we would need some time to re-establish ourselves and our families, and there would be a lot of renegotiating with the UN and government agencies to set up our international agreements again. We probably wouldn’t be called ‘Overwatch’ anymore; maybe something else. It would take time—years most likely—before we could regroup and recommence our mission.”

 _Years?_ And what did that mean for Jamie? Would he and Roadie be back out on the run again? Sleeping rough on the streets? Stealing to get by? Jamie had to admit he had gotten used to the comforts of life afforded to him by Overwatch. He wasn’t exactly chomping at the bit to lose the life he had built here. And what about Satya? Where would she go? Back to her life as an architect for Vishkar Corporation most likely. He knew the Corporation ran tight controls over her activities. She had explained to him once that she was indebted to Vishkar—both financially and morally—and that they wanted to see a return on their investment in the advanced technology imbedded in her hard-light-producing arm. The arm was custom-made and integrated with her psyche so that only she could use it. Most likely he would never see her again if the Corporation decided they wanted her back.

“This is purely an information-finding mission,” Lena added. “We are not expecting any combat; however, we will need to keep this as quiet as possible. I’ll be leading a covert team. It is of the upmost importance that we are not identified or linked with Overwatch in any way for our own safety until we can identify the Junkertown citizen involved in the attacks.”

Lena repositioned herself so she was standing next to the projector again. She went on, “We’ll be going in undercover as a tourist group. Naturally, due to the locals’ distrust of omnic technology and robotics, we won’t be able to include any of our ominc teammates on this particular mission.”

With the flick of a switch, Lena changed the holographic display above to show headshots of the agents who had been selected for the mission. Lena and Jamie’s face appeared at the top of the list, and Jamie noticed that largely the younger team members had been selected. Lúcio, Hana, Mei and Satya’s face looked back at him from the projector overhead. Jamie noticed immediately Roadie had not be selected. “What about Roadie?” he asked with a look of concern.

“Unfortunately, that won’t be possible…” Lena began before she was interrupted.

“Nah, nah nah,” Jamie said with a shake of his head. His body had become tense, mouth set in a firm line of disapproval, glaring at Lena. “That’s not the deal. When I signed up I was very clear; Roadie is with me at all times.” Satya watched his body language change and tried to calm him with a reassuring hand on his thigh.

“And we have consented to your condition of employment, Jamie,” Winston chimed in. “For _combat missions only_. This is not a combat mission.”

“We are fact-finding only on this mission,” Lena added. “If we are going to go in under cover, we need to present convincingly as a tourist group. For this reason, we’ve selected these team members for the mission for their credibility in presenting as tourists.” Lena gestured to the holographic display above for emphasis. The agents’ faces that stared back at them were youthful, human, and had none of the weathered features like those of the Junkertown residents Jamie had grown up with. “Agent Rutledge is known to the locals and too easily recognised. We won’t be sending him on this mission,” Lena said with finality.

Jamie cast a glance at his large bodyguard sitting on his right-hand side. Roadie had said nothing throughout the entire meeting and seemed to be observing the interaction with total disinterest. In fact, Jamie thought he could hear the older man snoring quietly under his ever-present gas mask. Jamie sneered at him.

“We also have a limited time-frame to complete this mission,” Athena spoke again. “We’ve been able to negotiate with the Australian government to allow us into the exclusion zone around Junkertown for the purpose of our mission. We’ve also managed to convince them to allow a Korean military satellite to position itself over Central Australia during that time. Ms. Song will be able to use this satellite to call down her mechs in a worse-case scenario should there be any trouble, however, the Australian government has only agreed to allow the satellite over their airspace for no more than three days.”

“It is therefore of the up-most importance that we complete this mission on schedule,” Winston added with emphasis.

Lena readjusted her stance and turned to look at the team members who had been specifically chosen for the mission. “You’ll receive your assignments on your communication pads shortly. We depart in forty-eight hours. You’ll all need to use this time to make any necessary preparations, and you are also all scheduled to meet with Angela later today to be prescribed preventative medication against any ill effects of…” Lena cleared her throat. “…radiation while on the mission.”

Jamie said nothing, eyes trained on the holographic projector above. The faces of his friends staring down at him.

“We’ll also schedule another pre-mission briefing to take place on the dropship prior to go-time, so please save your questions for then,” Lena stated firmly. She looked harried and nervous.

Jack, who had come to stand beside Lena, dropped a reassuring hand onto her shoulder. He turned to address the gathering of agents. “In the meantime, we ask for your patience and cooperation while we reinforce our security systems. We will be asking some of you to help relocate your friends and family back home to one of our safe houses for the time being,” Jack stated simply. “If there is nothing else to discuss?” No one said anything. “Then you’re all dismissed.”

There was a shuffling of feet and murmurs as everyone stood to head back to work. Jamie remained seated, staring at the floor and biting absentmindedly at his fingernails.

 _Just like that?_ He mused silently. Three years away from Australia and suddenly Overwatch springs it on him that he has to go back. How in the hell was he going to manage to pull this one off?

He looked at Satya next to him who sat quietly with hands clasped in her lap. “You knew about this, didn’t ya?” he asked, remembering Lena had said they had discussed aspects of the mission with Satya ahead of time. His tone was not accusatory, but tense all the same.

She smiled back at him apologetically. “I’m sorry, Jamie. They asked that I tell no one until they finalised a few more details and could make a formal announcement.”

He groaned dramatically, but he wasn’t truly angry at her. Roadie stood suddenly and strode away without a word. He had recently taken to making himself scarce where Jamie and Satya were concerned, Jamie had noticed. They watched him go.

“You’ll go, won’t you?” she asked him once Roadie was out of sight. He knew she was talking about the mission.

He nodded. “Yeah, yeah. Job’s a job, init? Won’t catch me skimpin’ on any job if there’s a good one going.” He resumed biting his nails nervously.

She knew there was more that he wasn’t saying, but she didn’t press him. She supposed it must be strange to be heading home after so many years away. She stood and have him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “Come on then,” she said. “We’ve got forty-eight hours get ready.”

Jamie stood to follow her to the labs. There was always plenty of work to be done in preparation for any mission. Falling into their usually pre-mission routine usually set his mind at ease. But for some reason, today, nothing could shift the cold stone of dread weighing heavily in the pit of his stomach.


	2. Chapter 2

Jamie leaned a little further out over the rocky overhang and felt the cool gully breeze rush soothingly over his skin. It was early morning, near dawn. The velvet air was already becoming heavy and oppressive. Overhead, the last few stars in the sky were winking out of existence. In the distance, he could hear the sound of Major Mitchell's cockatoos begin their morning cacophony of high-pitched calls. He could see the waxy leaves of the ghost gums in the gully far below, even at this distance glimmering in the morning light, shivering in anticipation for the day ahead.

He was worried. There was a lot that could go wrong today. And in his experience, if something could go wrong, it did go wrong.

The cool edge to the morning air was beginning to burn off as the temperature rose. He could already tell they were in for a scorcher. They would need to get moving soon if they were going to beat the mid-day heat. He tried to take a calming breath, just like Satya showed him how, but the cold stone of dread sat in the pit of his stomach and did not budge. And there was plenty for him to be worried about.

It had been three years since he had set foot in Australia. Three years since Junkertown had given him the boot. And now here he was, about to lead his own team of misfits back into hell. He wasn’t even sure if he was going to be able to get them in in the first place. Junkertown was a home-made fortress, built to withstand bandits’ and military attacks alike. The Australian government had tried to disband the gathering Junkers and their ramshamble township when it had first been built but without much luck. In the end, Junkertown’s presence was tolerated at best and given a wide berth by the rest of Australia’s citizens.

Jamie wound up there when his mum died when he was just seven years old and his dad followed her soon after. Junkertown took him in, as it did for many orphans back then. He had a place to live, and he quickly learned there was a living to be made off of the local trade; scrapping. Life hadn’t been so bad; he and the other street kids made a bit of money off scrapping metal and bits of machinery from the old omnic fusion core nearby. The other kids liked him well enough because he used his fascination with explosives to keep them safe from bandits with homemade cherry bombs when they did their scrapping runs.

Jaime had been kicked out when he didn’t ‘pay his taxes.’ He remembered quite clearly the Queen’s decree that ruled his life scrawled haphazardly in white paint on the wall opposite to the entrance to Junkertown. Rule number two: “ _Pay your share_.” Everyone paid taxes on everything to the Queen. If you found something valuable in the wastes, you had to pay her a share if you wanted to stay in Junkertown. And one day, Jamie had found one of the most valuable things in the world. He hadn’t really told anyone about it yet. The Queen herself didn’t even know what it was, just that Jamie had found some treasure in the wastes. He had only told Roadie just enough to keep the bodyguard interested in sticking around. Not even Satya knew about it and even if she had an inkling, she never asked him anything.

So that was it. After being kicked out, Jamie was out on his own with just a bodyguard to keep him company. Together he and Roadie set out on an international crime spree of thievery and mayhem. Finally, he was free! No taxes to pay, he could go anywhere, and make (or steal) as much money as he wanted. He never looked back. Until now.

Jamie hadn’t been sure when or even if he would ever come back to this place. He had thought Junkertown and his former life was all behind him. But now the fates had decided he couldn’t keep running from his past after all. What sort of fresh hell awaited them down in the pits of that old omnium in the middle of this irradiated wasteland, he wondered.

“So this is where you’ve been hiding.”

A voiced disturbed him from his reverie. Jamie turned and saw Satya making her way up the steep gully path towards his perch. There was amusement in her voice, her cheery demeanour in stark contrast to the concern he felt in his gut at that moment.

“Thought I might get some air while it’s still cool out,” he replied.

She smiled on approach and for a moment considered sitting on the red earth beside him. He had warned them all that the ochre in the soil would stain their clothes and, knowing how precious some of the team could be about their clothing, had told them all to bring gear they didn’t mind getting dirty. Satya didn’t own a single item of clothing for the purpose of ‘getting dirty.’ Everything she wore was crisp, clean and carefully chosen to compliment her person. She frowned at the prospect of sullying her pastel-coloured denim shorts and white blouse. In the end she tossed her long dark hair over one shoulder and took a seat beside him anyway. He smirked.

"You got water? It's gonna be thirty-three in the shade today."

She nodded. "Yes, I didn't forget."

He had told them all to carry water at all times. Out here, wandering the wastes at peak heat they could be dead in three hours if they didn't have water.

Satisfied with her response, he returned his attention to the task before him. He was almost done cleaning the dirty residue out of his frag launcher's firing mechanism. After that was done, he was going to give all metal parts a good polish. The frantic pace and intensity of his concentration was not lost on Satya. A casual observer might not have seen anything out of the ordinary in Jamie's jittery behaviour however Satya could see in the harsh jerking of his hands that something was a little off.

"You're nervous?"

He stopped. He tried again to take a deep breath.  Two pink galahs shot overhead, chirruping to one another, riding the updraft and disappearing into the towering rocks overhead that formed Ormiston Gorge, part of the West MacDonnell National Park where they found themselves.  It was early spring Jamie noted, and all the birds were pairing off. He turned his attention to his girl beside him.

How long had they been going out now? Just a few months but there had been plenty of flirting and carry-on before that. It was hard to pinpoint exactly when they had made a decision to start seeing each other regularly and exclusively. He supposed it must have been that time (or thereabouts) when he had all but given up any hope on his beautiful, dark-skinned comrade returning any of his feelings, and she had cornered him in the Rec Room when it was just the two of them one night. In typical Satya fashion, she stated her frustration in no uncertain terms; She was tired of dancing around the obvious feelings they shared and when her words began to stutter out and fail her, she jerked forward and did what Jamie had been dreaming of for months. She kissed him. And then she kissed him again so purposefully and intensely that he almost dropped his boba tea all over the two of them. He knew the moment he wrapped his arms around her that he was never going to be able to let her go.

Of course, everyone noticed the immediate and distinct change in his temperament since that night. Roadie had joked that Jamie seemed a lot calmer now that he was "getting it regular." Jamie wasn't sure if it was the sex or her mere presence that had the effect of calming him down. He knew he needed to behave himself with her; she was a lady and he didn’t want his unpredictable temperament to cause her undue stress. She preferred constants. He didn't mind behaving himself for her either; it wasn't like back when he was living in Junkertown and he was always being told to shut up and stop being so annoying. That only made him all the more fidgety being told what to do. But with her, it was different. He wanted to be his best self and she made him want to be a better person.

He gave her an inquiring look over his shoulder. The black empty eye sockets of the skull tattoo on his shoulder returned her thoughtful gaze. "I'm fine," he insisted.

"Is it because Roadhog won't be with you?"

There was a sharp inhale of breath to answer her question. It was true, this would be the first time in three years he had gone on a mission or some sort of caper without his burly bodyguard. Roadie had kept him as safe as possible given the strange circumstances they often found themselves in over the years. To suddenly not have his reassuring presence with him was unnerving for Jamie. Jamie had even tried to argue the point further with Jack and Lena after the mission briefing the other day, but they had only reaffirmed that that bringing Roadie was much too risky for the mission. Given his size, his ever-present gas mask, and his notoriety, he would be far too easily recognised. If they were going to sneak into Junkertown and seek an audience with the Queen, they were going to need to be _inconspicuous_.

Jamie gulped.

While the general consensus from the rest of the overwatch agents was that Jamie alone was more easily disguised and less recognisable without his bodyguard, there was still too much that could go wrong for Jamie's taste. But what other choice did they have? He had to admit that if being inconspicuous was that name of the game, they'd be better off sneaking in with a smaller, covert team.

Roadie on the other hand was altogether quite pleased to hear he was not needed on this mission. He despised Junkertown and being told he didn't have to go there was like being let off the hook.

"Real nice!" Jamie had exclaimed with a heavy dose of sarcasm upon observing Roadie's reaction. "And if anything happens to me, what do you think will happen to your twenty-five percent?"

"Fifty," Roadie corrected him.

"Whatever," Jamie dismissed Roadie with a wave of his hand.

"You'll be fine. You'll be surrounded by Overwatch agents all the same. In and out before the Queen knows what hits her."

Roadie shifted in his seat to look directly at the younger man. "Just don't screw it all up," he had said pointedly.

No pressure then.

Nervous was an understatement. Jamie felt like he was about to march into a den of lions without any protection. The corner of his mouth tugged downward into a firm look of disapproval.

Jamie felt a cool but gentle tap on his shoulder. The skull's eye sockets obscured now, Satya gave him a reassuring smile then turned to lay her cheek against the back of her hand where it rested against the tattoo.

"Don't worry. I'll protect you." Her voice bubbled up from under her dark hair. It was reassuring.

He was watching her closely. He reached up to cover her hand with his own. She lifted her head to accommodate him.

"Thanks, love," he murmured. He was looking out over the red expanse before him again. "We'll watch out for each other."

She was watching him. "But you're still worried?"

"There's too much that could go wrong."

Satya was surprised to see how affected he was by the upcoming mission. She paused only for a moment to give him a considering look. “Are you really that concerned?”

“It’s not a nice place, Symm.” He was looking pointedly down at his work. He loaded his grenades back into the ammunition casing a little too roughly.

She knew only a little about what happened to Central Australia during the Omnic Crisis, and that somehow Roadie was involved back in his days with the Australian Liberation Front. The resulting catastrophe turned the surrounding area into an irradiated wasteland. Jamie had told her, in his own words, that Junkertown was a collection of misfits and rejects who ultimately all got washed up together in the middle of nowhere.

“Would you consider sitting this one out?” He was watching her closely over his shoulder again.

She didn’t catch his meaning at first, then realised he was asking her to stay behind with the ship during the mission. Her eyes narrowed. “No. I told you I intended to join this mission. You are going to need my help if we are going to convince the Queen to aid us.”

He knew all of this of course, but he thought he would try and ask. “I want yer safe,” was the quiet explanation he offered her.

She considered him for some time before she spoke again. “Is it the Queen you’re worried about?” she asked quietly.

She hadn’t heard much about the Queen who ruled over Junkertown either besides what Jamie had told her. She was a mysterious figure and there were few public records about her. Jamie didn’t seem to hold her in particularly high regard.

“Nah,” he smirked like he had just thought of the funniest joke ever. “I got myself a new queen.” He snuck an arm around her shoulders and grinned at her. “And she’s the prettiest, smartest, and strongest girl in the world.” He squeezed her with his prosthesis.

She grinned back at him. “Aw,” she said with an exaggerated look of pleasure. It was a corny joke, but very sweet. She leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“Yeah,” he went on. “Her name is Lena Oxton and she’s a top bird—Ow! I was only joking!”

He was interrupted by Satya giving him a good clout on the back. Her strikes were only playful, and the look of mock rage on her face made him laugh. He ducked his head and raised his hands in surrender and they fell about laughing.

When they had finished giggling, she put her arms around his middle. He brought his prosthetic arm up to grip her shoulder, pulling her close again, while he rested his chin on top of her head.

“Everything will be fine,” she told him after a pause.

“Mm-hmm.”

“We’ll be together.”

“I know.”

She pulled away to look up at him. He seemed calmer now.

After some time, he asked, “Have we got some spare time?” There was a mischievous glint in his eye.

She checked her watch and shook her head. “No, we depart in less than 30 minutes. We should really use that time to make final preparations.”

He groaned in disappointment. “Shame. There’s a billabong not far from here. Would be nice to check it out. Could squeeze in a quick dip before we get to work.”

“How did you know it was there?” she asked.

“Used to go swimming out there when we were kids,” he said. His voice seemed distant. He was watching the small outcrop of trees in the distance where the cockatoos continued their shrieking. The red line of earth crested just beyond, where rocky ranges jutted against the dark blue sky far beyond the national park they were in now. The sun behind them was almost up.

Satya was watching his face intently. Her hands snuck up the smooth planes of his bared chest. She hummed appreciatively in her throat, satisfied with what she found there, and curled her fingers around the trapezius muscles that framed either side of his neck. His skin was warm under her touch and smelled of smoke and earth.

“Neither of us have brought any swimwear,” she pointed out helpfully.

“That shouldn’t stop us.”

She laughed. He was smirking down at her with a sly look.

“As tempting as that sounds…,” she gave him an appreciative look. “we really should be getting back.” He looked disappointed, but didn’t argue.

She held him for a brief moment longer then withdrew so she could stand. “Come on. There is much work to be done,” she said as she reached down to offer her hands so he could pull himself up.

He scooped up his equipment and let her tug him up to his feet. Together they walked shoulder-to-shoulder back towards the Overwatch dropship concealed within the gully below. Jamie’s spirits felt considerably lighter. Maybe he would be alright on this mission if Satya was with him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback welcome.


	3. Chapter 3

So they set off in a north-westerly direction, on-foot in the morning air. It was not long past dawn but already the air was stiflingly warm. Jack stood stoically to one side while Winston, Angela and Roadie waved a cheery farewell from the airconditioned comfort of the Overwatch dropship as the six agents assigned for the mission set off into the growing heat. Keeping the ship concealed from being sighted by the locals meant they had to hide the behemoth within the only gorge in the West MacDonnell National Park large enough to accommodate its size. Unfortunately, this then meant that they had a two-day hike ahead of them in order to reach Junkertown.

“Remember, if you get into any trouble, we’re less than a minute flight away,” Angela said with a smile as they left.  “Just set off your distress signal, and we’ll bail you out.”

“Thank you,” Satya smiled back at Angela. “In all probability, it will not come to that. But it is a comfort to hear all the same.”

Jamie shouldered his backpack and after giving Roadie one last disapproving look, he turned to set off towards a line to trees in the distance. Satya was soon beside him and matching his pace. She gave him a reassuring smile.

Lúcio was carving a path up ahead and chatting idly with Mei. He was slower without his blades but had agreed to forego them for the sake of maintaining the team’s cover as a tourist group. They were all dressed simply in shorts and t-shirts with leather hiking boots for the rocky terrain. Mei even wore a little straw sunhat to keep the sun off her shoulders. Lena was bringing up the rear. She was already pink around her cheeks and the tops of her ears where the heat was getting to her.

"Cheer up, Lena!" Lúcio said to her. "We'll break for lunch soon enough."

"You can always use your accelerator and run ahead to set up camp for us," Mei teased her. 

Lena looked as though she had no interest in running through the intense heat. "If we all had chronal accelerators, we could get there three times faster," Lena grumbled. 

Hana was bounding ahead of everyone, giggling and up-ending rocks in search of something.

“What are you looking for?” Mei asked eventually.

“Bugs! Lizards! Echidnas! I don’t know!” Hana was brimming with excitement. “I’ve always wanted to go to Australia! I want to see all the things!” She paused only briefly before surging forward and grabbed hold of Jamie by the front of this shirt. “Jamie! Where are the kangaroos? The koalas? I bet they’re so cute! I just want to squeeze them!” She started swinging around wildly. Jamie had to grip her hands firmly to bring her under control.

“Gerroff, Hana!” He tried to shrug her off. “I doubt we’ll see any of that stuff this far out in the middle of nowhere.”

“But I’ve waited all my life to come see them!” she whined.

“Well they’re hardly likely to come out if you keep carrying on like that,” Jamie pointed out.

She didn’t seem to hear him. Her eyes darted around frantically as though she might be able to spot some wildlife nearby if she looked hard enough. And with that she was off again, leaping ahead of the group, her pale blue shirt and short pink overalls already covered in red dust.

Satya stared about herself with disinterest. It was just a sea of dirt to her. She readjusted her backpack and felt her Photon Projector concealed inside knock against the small of her back through the fabric. They were all carrying their weapons and some meagre supplies concealed inside their backpacks. They couldn’t carry their weapons openly or they would blow their cover. Mei even had to give up her Endothermic Blaster and its oversized reservoir tank she usually carried on her back. She had brought Snowball, tucked away in her rucksack, as her only means of protection. Jamie was also hiking sans RIP-Tire which he usually carried into every mission on his back. Hana wore a beacon on her wrist which she intended to use to call down a mech if negotiations got out of hand, but her also had her Light Gun concealed and ready to go.

 _Speak of the devil…_ Satya thought as Hana came running back up to them at that moment with something gripped in each hand. “Satya, look! I call this one Godzilla and this one Bitey.” She waved two spotty lizards in Satya’s face.

Satya was so surprised, she shrieked and scrambled backwards, falling on her rear in the dirt. Hana laughed and dropped the two lizards which skittered away.

“Oi! That’s enough Hana,” Jamie said firmly, reaching down to offer Satya a hand back to her feet. Satya looked dejectedly down at her clothes and tried to dust herself off. There went her plan to stay reasonably clean on his trip. And it had only taken less than an hour into the mission before she was covered in dirt.

“This isn’t a jolly holiday, Hana,” Lena gave the younger girl a stern look and placed her hands firmly on her hips for emphasis. “We’re on a mission. Can we start to behave like professionals please?”

Hana huffed. “Who put you in charge?” she asked petulantly.

“What do you mean, ‘who put me in charge?’” Leana was incredulous. “I’m the most senior agent here and I’ve been appointed as the team leader for this mission. So quit bothering everyone and get ready to move!”

Lúcio was about to point out how much she sounded like their commander in chief, Jack Morrison in that moment but bit his comment back behind his teeth and settled for a smirk.

Hana crossed her arms over her chest. “Aw! I was only having some fun,” Hana pouted.

“Let’s just focus on the mission. We’ve got a job to do, remember?” Lena said admonishingly.

“Too right,” Jamie added. There was a dark look on his face. “This place makes me sick. Let’s just get this over with and get out of here.” He adjusted his backpack and took off marching ahead.

Hana watched him go with a look of concern. “Did I say something wrong?” she asked Lúcio beside her.

“I don’t think he’s pleased to be back. Let’s put it that way,” Lúcio replied. He and Hana fell into step beside each other and set off after Jamie.

“I’m so excited Lúcio!” Hana said with a huge grin on her face. “I can’t wait to see the awesome junkyard mechs they have in Junkertown!” She gasped suddenly and Lúcio watched a realisation dawned on her face. “Maybe I’ll even get to fight one of them!”

Lúcio saw Jamie, who was within ear-shot, bristling just ahead of them.

“That would be pretty cool,” Lúcio admitted. “But I doubt we’ll have much time for that.”

“Aw! Why can’t I have any fun on this trip?” Hana was pouting again.

Lúcio hid his smile with a downward glance. At least one of them enjoying being on this mission. Lúcio watched as Hana expelled a sigh and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. She looked a little dejected as she matched Lúcio’s pace. She turned to look up at him suddenly and he started, hoping she didn’t notice his staring.

“Do you think we’ll at least get to see a kangaroo?” she asked him.

Lúcio tried to keep the heat that was rising in his cheeks under control. Truth be told, he was actually nurturing a bit of a crush on the young mech pilot, although, he hadn’t quite found a way to let her know just yet.

“M- maybe. I’ll… uh… I’ll help keep an eye for you,” Lúcio said.

She smiled at him and his giddy expression almost betrayed him. “Thanks, Lúcio,” she said. Lúcio tugged on her arm to get her to hurry up and they set off at a quicker pace.

They walked for a couple of hours in peace. Lúcio played some tunes for them quietly from the speakers in his backpack. Despite the obvious discomfort some were feeling from the heat, no one complained. As they passed midday and were approaching the heat of the day, Jamie found a small copse of gum trees and announced they would break for lunch here and wait out the heat then start moving again closer to dusk.

Lena, Mei and Hana promptly collapsed to the ground under the shade of a ghost gum with audible sighs of relief. "It's sooooo hot!" Mei wailed from her position slumped in a heap with her comrades.

Lúcio, Satya and Jamie exchanged knowing looks.

"You lot are not from warm climates, are you?" Jamie asked light-heartedly.

There was a chorus of groans in reply. Lena in particular looked worse for wear, fanning herself with her hand, all pink around the face and ears.

Jamie tossed her a bottle of water, which she caught just in time. "Stay hydrated guys. The worst is yet to come," he told them. There was another chorus of groans.

Jamie busied himself setting up a small camp stove so they could make tea and instant noodles for lunch. Satya crouched beside him and helped with the food preparations. Lúcio was keeping watch from the top of a boulder nearby; they needed to be on the lookout for bandits. Mei had taken to lying down on a blanket in the shade while Snowball hovered overhead sprinkling cooling snowflakes on her head. Lena was trying to scoot closer so she too could feel the sweet relief of Snowball's icy flakes on her sun-kissed skin.

Hana seemed to have recovered a bit and was hopping from rock to rock--most likely in search of more lizard friends--and chatting with Lúcio as she did so. Satya was soon calling her back to the makeshift campsite for lunch.

They sat in the shade of the trees and ate in silence. Mei and Lena in particular looked a bit less wan after they had had something to eat. After a little while, Hana switched with Lúcio to take over lookout duty while he took a break.

As Mei raised her chopsticks to her mouth, Satya noticed something hanging from her wrist and sparkling in the midday sun.

“What a beautiful bracelet,” Satya remarked conversationally. She had never noticed it before now. Supposedly, Mei always kept it hidden beneath her oversized parka. Dressed now in shorts and a t-shirt, Satya noticed the bracelet on Mei’s wrist for the first time.

“Oh, thank you,” Mei replied, holding the piece of jewellery up for Satya to see. “You wouldn’t believe it, but it’s not just a bracelet.”

“Oh?” Satya was genuinely intrigued.  
Mei smiled. “It helps me monitor and transmit meteorological data back to the ship.” She ran her fingers over the blue beads thoughtfully.

Satya admired the pale blue colour and the snowflake charm glinting in the sunlight. “Are you collecting data while you’re on this mission?” Satya asked.

Mei nodded. “Winston asked me to see if there are any abnormal climate phenomena as a result of the radioactivity in the area. Winston promised we’d share our findings on the effects of radiation on the local ecosystem with the Australian Government.”

“So that’s how he got them to agree to cooperate with our mission,” Satya mused.

Mei finished eating and started to pack up her lunch things. “They’re very interested to know more about the ecosystem here. They haven’t sent their own scientists in to this area because they haven’t been able to guarantee their safety,” she explained. “Winston offered to collect data on their behalf.”

Jamie had been listening while he chewed his meal. “So it’s too dangerous for them, but it’s safe enough for us, eh? _Typical_ ,” Jamie grizzled.

Lúcio looked up from his food. “Angela said we’d all be safe from radiation if we took our medicine,” he pointed out.

“I don’t mean that,” Jamie said as he started to pack up the remains of his lunch, a little too roughly, Satya noticed. “It’s the locals you all should be worried about…”

"Jamie!"

They all turned at the sound of Hana's voice to see her standing atop her look-out post, binoculars in hand, pointing to something in the distance. She was watching the rest of her team intently to ensure she had their attention. “There’s a man,” she said.

Mei gasped and quickly stuffed Snowball back into her rucksack. She didn’t want him to be seen by any locals.

Jamie limped over to Hana as quickly as he could on his peg leg. He hopped nimbly onto the rock beside her and took the binoculars. He pointed them in the direction Hana had indicated.

At first, he saw nothing out of the ordinary but then a dark shape came into focus. A solitary man was indeed walking towards them.

Jamie watched him through the binoculars without speaking for a moment longer.

"What should we do?"

It was Lena who had come to stand beside him. Without a word, he handed her the binoculars so she could take a look.

"Hang on a tick," Jamie said as he got down from his perch. He started walking towards the dark figure. As he got closer, more details of the figure came into focus. The heat was so intense now it made the man's outline appear distorted and hazy even at this distance. Jamie could see that the man was aboriginal and dressed simply in faded khaki shorts, a black singlet and an Akubra hat.

Lena watched the man approach from her position with the rest of the team. Her mind was racing as to what their next course of action should be. Was this man a friend or foe? He fingers twitched toward her backpack where she knew her pistols were waiting just in case she needed them. She watched the man pause as Jamie came closer and raised his hand to make a signal that she couldn't quite make out.

Jamie also paused and made a signal back at him with his good hand. The stranger seemed satisfied with Jamie's response and propelled himself forward again on spindly legs. Lena couldn't make any sense of the exchange.

"It’s alright," Jamie called back to them over his shoulder. "He just wants to trade."

Lena visibly relaxed but questions still plagued her. Trade what exactly? She set her backpack so that was resting comfortably on the centre of her back again.

"G'day, bruv," the man said when he came within ear-shot.

"G'day," Jamie said back.

" _Unte mwerre?_ " the man said in a language Lena couldn't understand. She assumed it was an indigenous language.

" _Ye, ayenge mwerre_ ," Jamie replied without missing a beat and Lena was genuinely startled to hear he was capable of communicating in yet another language.

"Been tracking ya," the man said. "Hope ya don't mind."

"No worries," Jamie said simply. They turned and started walking back towards their makeshift campsite.

"Dale," the man said and offered a hand for Jamie to shake. He didn't bat an eye at Jamie's missing arm or leg.

Jamie shook the hand offered to him and introduced himself too.

"What brings you lot out here?" Dale asked. "Camping?"

"Yeah, camping," Jamie said and nodded towards the rest of his team. "Tourists," he offered as a form of explanation.

Dale laughed. "What’re you? A tour guide?"

"Yeah," Jamie said firmly and didn’t say any more. Although this particular area had been made into an exclusion zone by the Australian government some 30 years ago, it wasn't unusual to find locals still walking around or illegal tourism going on so it wasn't a particularly difficult story to sell.

"Nice," Dale said and joined them around the camp stove. Satya poured him some tea.

"What've you got?" Jamie asked the newcomer.

Dale emptied out his rucksack. Out spilled some interesting items; a hunting knife, something that might have once been a toaster but it had been reengineered into something else, some scrap metal pieces, and a bottle of dubious looking liquid.

Jamie wasn't particularly interested in what he saw and was about to say so to Dale but then a bit of what appeared to be computer hardware with loose wires caught his eye.

"Do you know much about Junkertown, Dale?" Satya asked politely.

"Youse heading that way are ya?" Dale laughed. "I dunno why. Lot o' people try to avoid that place if they can help it."

"We're just curious if there's anything to worry about where Junkertown is concerned, that's all," Lena said cautiously.

"Nah, Junkers don't bother you none if you leave them alone, ya know?" Dale said and finished his tea in one big gulp. “’Course, you just gotta make sure you don’t mention omnics around them.”

Everyone shifted uncomfortably. Dale hadn’t twigged yet that there was actually a Junker in their midst. He went on, “They go on and on about what the omnics did to ‘their’ land. That’s Arrernte land. It belonged to black fellers longer than it belonged to any Junkers.” Dale shook his head. “And then they bloody shoot at ya if you try to say so.”

“Arrernte?” Satya rolled the foreign word around in her mouth experimentally. She wasn’t sure she had the pronunciation just right.

“My people!” Dale laughed. “Traditional owners of all this land ‘ere.” He gestured all around himself with his arms for emphasis. “But we still walk this land. We know everything that goes on here…”

"But what about Junkertown?" Lúcio asked. He wanted to get the conversation back on track. "Are you sure there’s nothing out of the usual going on there? Have you heard any news?" Everyone watched Dale closely for his answer.

Dale looked at them all carefully. "Nope. What's with the third degree?"

Everyone quickly tried to cover their looks of intense scrutiny with casual disinterest. Jamie made a mental note to give them all a good ribbing later for being the least inconspicuous secret agents ever.

Before anyone could say anything in their defence, Jamie piped up. "I want this." He held up the computational hardware he had been examining.

Lena eyed the device. She assumed it was something Jamie intended to use to integrate into an explosive. He was always turning things into explosives. One time the microwave went missing from the communal kitchen at the Gibraltar base and was found a few days later partially dismantled in Jamie’s workshop as he attempted to turn it into an explosive device. Needless to say, no one was particularly impressed by his experiment and he received orders not to turn any more kitchen appliances into explosives.

"No worries," Dale said to Jamie. "What've ya got?"

Jamie dug around in his pockets for a moment and started pulling out an odd assortment of differently-coloured cherry bombs, their shiny little spray-painted faces grinning up at them. "There, ya go," Jamie said. "You can have three."

"Five," Dale said.

"Four," Jamie countered.

"Deal," Dale reached out to hand him the device and snatched up the cherry bombs.

Jamie tucked the device away in his backpack and shook Dale’s hand again.

"Cheers, mate," Dale said and gathered his things. They all stood to escort him to the edge of the camp. "If you lot are going near Junkertown, be heaps careful, eh?" Dale said as he shouldered his rucksack. He turned on his heal and set off at a leisurely place. " _Urreke aretyenhenge_ ," he said, tossing the words casually over his shoulder.

" _Kele aretyenhenge_ ," Jamie replied.

"He was nice," Mei said quietly more to herself than anything. Snowball peeked out from under the flap of her rucksack and, seeing that all was safe, emerged to watch Dale's retreating form.

"What did you say to him?" Satya asked as Dale disappeared into the heady haze of the afternoon heat.

A look of confusion passed over Jamie's face for a brief second before he realised what she was asking. "Just 'hello' and stuff. It's the local aboriginal language," Jamie replied. "It's Upper Arrernte. We learned in school. It's the quickest way to know if you’re talking to a local or not."

Lena fixed him with a wry smile. "Are you supposed to be trading explosives with civilians if said explosives were technically paid for by Overwatch?"

It was true that Overwatch covered all his expenses for materials to produce explosives for his work as an agent. He shrugged and shot Lena a cheeky grin in response. “I won’t tell if you don’t.”

They all returned to the campsite to pack up the lunch supplies. They rested in the shade for a couple more hours while they waited for the worst of the heat to pass, taking turns to keep watch. Jamie napped on the blanket Mei had laid out before, his prosthesis curled around Satya's middle, his other arm pillowed underneath his head. Satya lay quietly beside him reading a book on her tablet. Snowball whizzed overhead helpfully dropping snowflakes on them to keep them cool. Hana had resumed her hunt for creatures under the trees nearby.

After some time, the temperature began to recede to something more comfortable and they decided to pack up and get moving. They could fit in a bit more hiking before night fell and they had to make camp again for the night.

They set off again. With each step the day became cooler and the shadows longer. They passed through a forest of spindly trees that grew increasingly thicker.

"Can we stop for a moment?" Mei asked suddenly. "I need to pee."

"Sure, I need to go too," Lena replied. “Let's all take a breather.”

While everyone dropped their backpacks to the ground to rest for a moment, Mei made her way through the trees and Lena headed off in the opposite direction, each to find a private spot. Hana scanned their overhead and sighed dejectedly. She still hadn't sighted a single koala so far today. Her mental images she had formed over time of Australia overflowing with the adorable creatures was quickly dashed. She could hear a kookaburra though. She craned her neck. The sound was so close, it must be nearby... there! The kookaburra was just overhead. It started up again, laughing with mad abandon. Hana giggled. The laughter reminded her of Jamie.

The kookaburra took off and headed deeper into the forest. The direction it flew off in sloped downhill away from the hilly rise where the rest of her team stood. Hana followed the kookaburra a short distance, winding a path between the trees, until she came to a small babbling creek. The kookaburra was drinking from the water’s edge. Hana stood still and watched until the bird looked up in alarm and suddenly took off.

Hana watched him fly away in confusion. What had startled him? She had been perfectly still. Then she heard a subtle crackling of dry leaves and eucalyptus bark underfoot as something approached in her direction from the opposite bank of the creek. The rustling was too quiet to be a human, probably something smaller. _'Like a kangaroo?'_ she wondered hopefully.

She waited until the bushes on the far side parted to reveal a grey-blue creature on all fours. Hana started in alarm. It was a dog. Hana instinctively reached for her Light Gun which was in her backpack, then realised with a sinking feeling that she had dropped her backpack on the forest floor back up the on higher ground with her team. The dog spotted her immediately and bared its teeth with a low growl.

Back further up the creek bank, the rest of the team was waiting for Mei and Lena to finish so they could regroup.

"Should we camp here tonight?" Lúcio asked hopefully.

"Nah," Jaime replied, kicking at the dirt. "Ground’s no good here. 'Sides, we should try to fit in a bit more walking before the sun goes down."

"We've made good progress considering the heat," Satya commented. "Let's try and keep it up a bit longer."

Mei was walking back towards them at that point. " _Hsie`hsie˙_ ," she said. She paused as she looked up at her team members. "Where's Hana?"

They all turned to look around them. "She was here just a second ago," Lúcio said. He cast his gaze around in growing alarm hoping to see her emerge from the trees any moment now.

"She's probably just wandered off to collect some bugs or something--" Jamie started but was interrupted by a piercing scream. They all instantly recognised it as Hana’s.

Without hesitation, they all set off running. They clamoured downhill towards the source of the sound. Jamie was trying to keep pace while simultaneously reaching for his frag launcher in his backpack.

Soon, Hana’s pink and blue outfit came into view amidst the leaf litter of the forest floor. She was partly lying on her back and partly sitting up, staring at the opposite bank from one side of a small creek. She was frozen in terror.

“What is it—?” Jamie started to say but then spotted what Hana was staring at.

A blue heeler was hunched over on the opposite bank, bristling furiously and growling with teeth bared at Hana. The creek was so small, the creature could easily leap across with ease at any moment. At first Jamie thought it must be feral, but then he noticed a collar and name tag dangling from the dog’s throat.

“What the—?” was all Jamie could mutter before the sound of footsteps approaching quickly from the opposite bank could be heard. The sound of dry leaf litter cracking under booted feet was unmistakable.

The dog let out a loud bark that startled everyone. “Don’t move,” Jamie told them.

The dog barked again and the footsteps drew nearer. There was a rustling in the bushes, and finally they parted to reveal a young woman in her twenties, shotgun in hand, with the sight already raised to eye-level. She spotted them standing on the opposite bank and trained the weapon on them immediately.

Satya was so surprised, she could barely process what was happening. She could feel her mind beginning to race. She was panicking, she realised. She needed something to focus on, something to ground herself with. She needed to be calm if she was going to think of a way to escape. She reached forward and gripped the back of Jamie’s shirt for support. He leaned back into her, letting her know he was there.

Satya peered out from around Jamie’s shoulder and watched as the girl drew closer. She was tall and thin, dressed in jeans, a dark blue button-down shirt, leather boots and a broad-brim hat. Her brownish-blonde hair was pulled tight into a French braid that fell in a single rope all the way down to the small of her back.

She tried to think of something to shape into hard-light with her gauntlet. Maybe a blade? Could she throw it from here without getting a face full of shotgun ammunition? She dismissed the idea; at best she would buy them only a little time, at worst she missed or hit a teammate.

“Don’t move!” the stranger commanded as she moved closer. The dog continued to growl at them. “Drop your weapons!”

All was quiet for a second. “We don’t have any—” Jamie started to lie but he was interrupted.

“Then drop your bags!” the girl shouted, her voice echoed into the forest canopy above and disturbed a flock of parrots into flight. Jamie looked over his shoulder at the rest of his team. At some point, Lúcio had placed himself between Hana and the dog. He was looking back at Jamie questioningly. Jamie nodded and they all dropped their bags to the ground.

“Kick them away,” the girl said. Jamie nodded again and they all followed suit.

She motioned at them with the barrel of her gun. “Hands where I can see ‘em.”

Everyone obligingly raised their hands. Jamie watched the girls’ movements closely with eyes narrowed. There was a decidedly practised way that she held the gun and there was confidence in her stance. She was probably a good shot.

The girl had reached her dog’s side by that point. “Good boy, Bluey!” she cooed and the dog’s entire demeanour changed. He started leaping up at her and wagging his tail furiously. The girl giggled as the dog nearly knocked her off balance in his excitement. Her hat fell back, catching around her throat where a drawstring held it in place.

Without the hat partially obscuring her face, Jamie could see her properly now. A spray of freckles stood out across her cheeks and the bridge of her nose despite the deep tan colour of her skin. There was no mistaking who she was.

_It couldn’t be. Not after all this time._

“Kat?” he asked quietly.

The girl looked back up at him in alarm. She lowered the weapon she had trained on him ever so slightly so she could get a better look. Her eyes widened in realisation. There was a sharp inhale of breath.

“Jamie?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback welcome.


	4. Chapter 4

The forest was utterly silent. Satya switched her attention between Jamie and the girl on the opposite creek bank with a look of confusion. From the way Jamie was talking, he seemed to know this girl from his childhood. Was she from Junkertown too?

"Jesus Christ," Jamie was staring at her like he'd seen a ghost. "Kat, is that really you?"

The girl, Kat, was staring back at him, mouth agape. Jamie took a step forward and that seemed to snap her out of her reverie.

She took aim again, pointing the barrel of her shotgun right at Jamie's head. "Don't you _fucking_ move!" she screamed. She was shaking violently. Her stance changed completely now; she went from standing upright and confident to crouching defensively.

Jamie stilled himself instantly. Everyone was watching him for his next move. Even the dog was standing perfectly still, head cocked in confusion as he watched the exchange.

"Kat, it's me, Jamie. Remember?" His voice was completely calm despite staring down the barrel of a shotgun. "We was kids together..."

"I know who you are! What the fuck are you doing here?" she shouted.

Jamie tried to take another small step forward but Kat noticed. "Stop moving! I'll shoot!"

"Well first of all, you won't be shooting anything," Jamie said flatly.

"Why's that?"

"You've got the safety on."

Kat looked down and realised he was right. Awkwardly, she tried to reach forward and fumbled at the safety switch with her thumb.

"Do you want me to--?" Jaime asked and reached forward to help.

"No!"

Kat’s voice was hoarse. The dog whimpered beside her. Finally, she got it off and promptly refocused her aim on him.

"Now what are you doing here?" she demanded.

Jamie laughed. "Well, we was in the neighbourhood and thought we'd pop along for a visit..."

"Real funny," Kat deadpanned. "You're not supposed to be here."

"Ah yeah," he started with an apologetic smile. He kept his hands raised where Kat could see them. "The whole exile thing. That's why I'm ‘ere. I'm gonna make good on my taxes and all!"

Kat looked confused. She lowered the gun slightly to look at him. "What do you... no... that's not..."

There was movement over Kat's shoulder. Satya looked up and saw Lena moving quietly towards them from the opposite bank, pulse pistols raised. It was difficult given the dry leaf litter that could crackle underfoot and give her position away, but Lena positioned herself standing on a fallen log and took aim at Kat's head. Jamie had spotted her too and gave a very subtle shake of his head. Lena shot him a questioning look. He repeated the motion, and Lena angled her pistols' aim away accordingly. 

"What's with the gun?" Jaime asked, eyeing the weapon.

Kat looked like she couldn't find the right words. After a pause, she reached for a pocket in her jeans and dug something out. She tossed it across the short distance between them. It landed at Jamie's feet. Satya leaned around him slightly to see Kat had thrown a folded wad of battered and creased paper at Jamie.

He bent slowly to retrieve it. Satya could see it was very worn, like it had been folded and unfolded many times and was now very delicate. He opened it with care.

On the left side of the page was a list of names. Some Jamie recognised, some he didn't. Some of the names corresponded with crudely drawn likenesses sketched on the right side of the page. He scanned the document and two names stood out towards the bottom of the page.

_Jamison Fawkes. Mako Rutledge._

Sketches of Roadie's gas masked face and his own countenance stared back at him from the right margin. In big, bold red lettering at the top of the paper read: _SHOOT ON SIGHT_.

Satya who had been reading over his shoulder let out an audible gasp. She plucked the paper from his hands and stared at it in disbelief. Her mind was racing again. Had Junkertown put out a hit on Jamie and Roadie? They had come all this way and they weren't going to be able to get near Junkertown without being shot at? Did this mean their mission was a complete failure?

"What the fuck is this?" Jamie asked incredulously. He was glaring back at Kat, face flushed with anger. "You're gonna fucking shoot me?" he demanded. "We grew up as little kids together, I come half way across the world to see you after three years, and you're gonna fucking shoot me just like that?"

Kat looked stricken. "Stay back!" she cried desperately. Satya could see Lena paused indecisively not far behind Kat, unsure what to do. 

"Go on then!' Jamie was in a rage now. He came towards Kat, stepping across the small creek with ease in a single stride, and grabbed hold of the gun's barrel so he could point it right at his chest. Kat froze. "Get on with it then! Shoot me!"

"Jamie!" Satya screamed and tried to pull him back. She had never seen him this angry before. 

Kat burst into tears. "I'm not going to shoot you! But you're not supposed to be here!" she wailed, her voice echoing through the forest canopy. Jamie paused in surprise and watched as Kat slowly lowered the weapon. All was silent except for her hitching breath.

"You're not supposed to be here," she repeated, quieter this time, shaking her head at him. Her voice was broken, tears beginning to spill down her cheeks. She rubbed furiously at her eyes in embarrassment.

"Kat..." Jamie said quietly. He reached for her. "Kat," he said again. 

"You're not supposed to be here," she said again, imploringly, as though it might make him disappear. Defeated, she let Jamie put his arms around her and she hid her face in his shirt. They were stood there quietly for a moment, Kat's arms limp at her sides, breath hitching with quiet sobs. The dog was winding around their feet wagging its tail happily. The silence was broken when Kat suddenly jerked her fist up into Jamie's ribs and said loudly into his shoulder, "You arse!"

 

____

 

Mei had watched the entire exchange in complete bewilderment. They were now sitting around a small campfire some hours later after everyone had had a chance to calm down. Mei sat with a mug of tea in hand, watching Kat on the opposite side of the flames. Kat's mug of tea sat untouched on the ground beside her. She was staring at the campfire, arms crossed and resting on her raised knees. From what Mei had been able to ascertain, Jamie had been friends with Katherine, or “Kat,” many years ago in Junkertown. The two must have grown up together. Mei understood now that Kat must have been torn up at the prospect of having to shoot her childhood friend.

Mei felt movement in her rucksack and Snowball made a quiet trilling noise like he wanted to come out. Mei looked over her shoulder and saw his little eyes peeking out from under the flap of her rucksack. She shook her head with a frown and Snowball retreated further inside looking dejected. Mei had heard how distrustful Junkertown could be of modern technology so just to be safe, she was keeping Snowball concealed from Kat for the time being. She had visions in her head of Kat leaping upon the small robot and smashing him with the butt of her gun if she ever laid eyes on him. 

Hana and Lúcio sat nearby. Hana had sustained a scraped knee at some point during her encounter with the dog. Lúcio had bandaged it for her and was now sitting close, watching Kat with suspicion. The dog in question was laying comfortably beside Kat, panting happily and oblivious to the tension in the air. 

“How are you feeling now?” Lúcio asked Hana.

“Much better,” she said. She set her mug of tea down and flashed him a smile. “And before you go telling me off, I promise not to wander off again.”

“Good. You scared me real good for a second there. I was worried about you.” He suddenly felt he had said too much and tried to cover his slipup with a laugh. He turned away so Hana couldn’t see the colour rising to his cheeks.

Hana didn’t seem to notice. She stretched, yawned, and leaned into his shoulder. She pulled out a small gaming device from her pocket and was immediately engrossed. He stiffened but didn’t dare move. He turned his head ever so slightly so he could watch her game play. It took all of his will power to keep his eyes on the game instead of letting his gaze drift towards her face which he much preferred to look at.   

A little further away Lena and Jamie were pacing and arguing via a communication system with the Overwatch leadership team who were back at the dropship. Said communication system was resting on a log nearby, " _Sound Only_ " displayed on the screen. 

"This doesn't mean the mission is over," Jack was saying. 

"Are you bloody mental?" Jamie was irate. "They want to  _shoot_  me! You sent me out here without my bloody bodyguard! I knew this was a bad idea..."

"Calm down," Roadie voice came over the communication system, hoarse and strained as usual. 

"That was a condition of my employment," Jamie went on, seeming not to have heard Roadie speak. "That Roadie was with me at all times. This is bullshit!"

"Jamison, you are surrounded by some of Overwatch's best agents. There is no place safer in this world," Jack sighed. 

"And we are only a short flight away if you get into any trouble," Winston added. 

"Can you get here as fast as it takes to shoot a bullet at me?" Jamie asked without humour.

Jack went on as though Jamie had said nothing. “Do we know why Junkertown has issued an order to ‘shoot on sight?’” Jack asked.

“No,” Lena replied. Her chronal accelerator was glowing faintly in the dark of the forest. “As far as we have been able to ascertain from our guest…” Lena’s gaze drifted to the campfire where Kat was sitting a short distance away. “…the hit was put out by the queen soon after Jamie and Roadie were exiled. It must be because of the non-payment of taxes.”

“That bitch was always so petty…” Jamie was muttering under his breath as he paced in front of Lena.

"We can still salvage this," Jack said. “Junkertown might want you two dead, but that just means we need to alter our approach here. Instead of appealing to the queen, we might need to use a little force." 

Lena was massaging her temples as she listened to the conversation. Her migraine was getting worse, and she really couldn't believe they were even considering this. "You want us to use force?" she asked. "This was supposed to be a no-combat, information-finding mission only."

"You'll still need to conceal your identities, find a way in undetected and get close to the queen. I'm authorizing you to use force if necessary. Get the information we need, and get out of there," Jack stated simply. 

"Anything else?" Jamie asked flippantly. "Should we invite everyone in town to a tea party on the dropship and we can all have a jolly good time? Or should I just save everyone the trouble and shoot myself now?"

"This is really no different to any other mission, Jamie," Winston said calmly. "Our agents know the risks and put their lives on the line every time they go out on a mission. Why should this be any different?"

" _Because Roadie is not with me_ ," Jamie ground out between clenched teeth.

"We don't have time to write this off and recommence a new mission with both you and Roadie," Winston explained. "The Korean Military's satellite can only remain over Australian air space for another two days. That's all the time the Australian government allotted us. If we withdraw now, it will be a long time before they will agree to cooperate with us again. By then we will most likely have lost this lead on Talon."

"This matter is closed for discussion," Jack said firmly. "You will complete your mission; obtain with the intel we need and where possible, apprehend the culprit for questioning. Overwatch's continued existence depends on it." With that the communication system disconnected abruptly as though to punctuate his point. 

Jamie was red in the face. He turned on his heal and made as if to march away, hands fisted at this sides.

"Jamie, wait…" Lena grabbed a hold of his arm as he attempted to pass her.

"No!" He whirled on her. "This is a load of shit. This is bigger than you having a nice little successful mission and maybe a promotion under your belt. This is my _life_."

Her grip on his arm did not falter. She looked at him imploringly. "It's my life too! You think I'm not worried about Overwatch disbanding? About what that would mean for each of us? About Emily?” Lena’s voice was raw with emotion. “God, don't you care that all of us are affected by this? That our families' lives are at risk?"

"I guess not since I don't have any family," Jamie said coldly and walked away.

Lena watched him go. Did he really feel that way? She took a moment to rub at her face tiredly. It had been a long day. She tried to tell herself that Jamie was speaking out of anger. He was angry at the situation, not her. She took some calming breaths before collecting the communication system from the fallen log and walking over to re-join the group.

Meanwhile, Jamie had marched purposefully back over to the campfire. He snatched up Kat’s blacklist that was lying on the ground and threw himself down beside her. Jamie narrowed his eyes at her, his mouth forming a thin line of disapproval.

"I don't look like this anymore, by the way," Jamie said abruptly holding up the blacklist next to his face to show the difference between his own countenance and crude drawing of his face. Kat snatched the paper back and stuffed it into her pocket. 

“I can see that now,” Kat retorted. She watched him for some time. His hair had been cut—she’d never even known him to have had a haircut in his life (he could never sit still long enough)—and it had grown back in places. He was always burning some of it off here and there with his explosives so every time she saw him when they were younger, his hair was different. Now he had let it grow out longer on top and kept the sides trimmed short. It was actually kind of stylish for him, considering he used to just let it do whatever. She also noticed that he had put on a bit of weight; his once thin and wiry form appeared healthier and his muscles more well defined. He must have been living comfortably in recent years.

“Everything alright back there?” Kat asked Jamie, nodded her head back towards the log where they had set the communication device down before. She had only caught fragments of the conversation, mostly the word “mission” over and over again. “Sounded like youse were having a blue.”

“It’s fine,” Jamie said like he didn’t want any more questions about it. She saw him take a deep breath.

Kat stared back at the faces around the campfire. They were certainly an odd assortment of people and of varying nationalities. “So how do you all know each other?” Kat asked.

There was silence for a moment. “We work with Jamie,” Satya supplied helpfully.

“Right-o,” Kat replied. “You got a job, Jamie?” she asked him. He nodded in reply.

“Ace.” She was watching him warily. “What is it exactly that you do?”

Jamie didn’t say anything. After a pause, he turned to Lena who had walked up behind them at some point and was leaning casually against the trunk of a nearby tree. Lena had been observing Kat quietly. She seemed to be formulating a rough plan for their next course of action. She returned Jamie’s steady gaze. “It’s alright,” Lena said. “You can tell her.”

“Lena…” Lúcio turned towards her. “We shouldn’t…”

“We are going to need Kat’s help for the next phase of our mission. She has a right to know what we do and why she should help us,” Lena said simply.

Jamie turned back to Kat. He looked like he was considering what to say next. "You ever seen a James Bond film?" he asked her.

It took some time to explain, but when Jaime had finished explaining what Overwatch was and how he was part of it, Kat was staring back at them all in disbelief. "So you're all spies?"

"Essentially," Lena replied.

"Jamie, you're a spy?" Kat asked incredulously. "You? The least inconspicuous person on the planet?"

Jamie shrugged in response.

"Pull the other one," Kat huffed.

"Jamie is a very valuable member of our team," Lena stated calmly. "There are not many people in this world anymore who understand traditional explosives like he does."

"My dad taught me everything I know about 'em," Jamie said by way of explanation. He seemed suddenly interested in the sticks and leaves of the forest floor and toyed with them with his fingers. "He fought when the omnics attacked."

Kat seemed to be forming a sense of understanding now. She was quiet for some time.

"We need your help Kat," Jamie said quietly. "Can you get us into Junkertown?"

Kats eyes went wide. Her head whipped around to look up at Jamie in alarm. "No, Jamie! They'll shoot you! We were all told, anyone on that list must be shot on sight."

"You didn't shoot him," Mei pointed out.

"You lot might not be so lucky next time," Kat replied, shaking her head.

"We wouldn't ask if it wasn't important, Kat," Lena said quietly. "We are in a position where the lives of our friends and families have been threatened. We need to gather information on who exactly is targeting us. We understand that someone in Junkertown is involved."

Kat looked confused. "Why would someone in Junkertown be trying to attack you guys?"

"That's what we need to find out," Lena replied solemnly. "At this point, we don't know who is responsible. Only that they are most likely based in Junkertown and may be connected to Jamie somehow. We need to talk to the queen to get Jamie off this blacklist and then we can investigate who is behind these attacks."

Kat's eyes went wide. "You're gonna try and talk to the queen? She don't wanna see you Jamie." 

"I know," Jamie ground out. "But we don't have much of a choice." He was silent for some time. "I need to call in a favour, love."

Kat was shaking her head again. "No,” she said. “No, no, no. No!"

"Kat..."

"No! No more favours. No more messing about! It's time to get serious, Jamie!"

"This is serious Kat! We're talking about world peace here. If we complete our mission, there's no telling how many lives will be saved. It's much bigger than just you and me."

“And why should I help you?” Kat glared at him.

Jamie was exasperated. “’Coz when a mate asks you for help, you're supposed to help them!” he all but shouted at her.

"Well I'm not getting involved. I only just got this job and I want to keep it. Do you know how hard it was for someone like me to become a scout?" Kat shifted her body so she could turn away from Jamie’s pleading looks, crossing her arms over her chest. "Besides, you can't just disappear, rock up three years later and demand favours of me!"

"I didn't disappear, I was exiled!" Jamie exclaimed. 

"And who's fault was that?" she shot back. She pulled a hipflask from the belt at her hip and took a swig of what everyone assumed to be alcohol.

"Can I ask a question?" Satya interrupted them calmly and looked directly at Kat. “Why are you so rude to Jamie?”

Kat slowly turned to stare at Satya. “’Scuse me?” Kat asked incredulously. “Do you know how much trouble he’s caused us?” She pointed a finger at Jamie for emphasis. “The things he stole from around town? The number of fights he started at the pub? _He blew up the queen’s summer shack!_ ”

“That’s not what I asked,” Satya said calmly. “He’s your friend, isn’t he? Why do you speak to him like he is nothing? Why do you refuse to help him? Is it because he is different? Is it because even in a town full of misfits and rejects, you need to single someone out to pick on and feel better about yourselves?” Her words had increased in volume as she spoke. Satya’s gaze upon Kat and the intensity in her voice was startling. She watched Kat closely as though daring the young woman to argue with her.

Kat’s eyes narrowed in Satya’s direction. No one spoke. The only sound was the soft beeps emitted from Hana’s gaming device as she played on, oblivious to the drama going on around her.

Kat turned on Jamie. “Who the _fuck_ is this?” Kat demanded and jerked a thumb in Satya’s direction. She took another swig from her flask.

Jamie released a breath he hadn’t realised he had been holding. “That’s my girlfriend, Satya—” He had barely finished his sentence before Kat and sprayed a mouthful of liquid all over the campfire in front of her. The flames licked up the alcohol hungrily.

Kat stared back at Jamie disbelievingly. “ _Girlfriend!?_ ”

Satya rolled her eyes and Jamie threw up his hands in defeat.

“For _fuck’s_ sake,” Satya muttered.

 

___

 

 

It was some time later after everyone had settled down for that night that Satya made her way barefoot and silent through the camp, weaving a path between her sleeping team mates. Her toes sunk into the soft red sand of the dry riverbed they had chosen to camp on. The dying embers of the campfire shed only minimal light on her path. She hoped desperately everyone was too tired from their adventures to be woken by her footsteps.

She spied Kat as she passed, sleeping peacefully in her swag roll. Kat had begrudgingly agreed to help them ‘as best she could’ and in the end, they had formulated a plan to get into Junkertown before going to bed. But Satya didn’t want to worry about that now.

Bluey was resting beside Kat’s swag. He had awoken at Satya's approach and was panting happily, but otherwise didn't move or make a sound. Kat had told them all not to worry about keeping lookout during the night; Bluey could smell a bandit a mile away and would alert them quickly to danger.

"Good boy," Satya whispered as she passed. Bluey wagged his tail enthusiastically in response.

She identified Jamie's sleeping bag easily from the blond tufts of hair jutting out of one end. She crouched beside his sleeping form and carefully reached out one hand to touch his shoulder. He jolted awake with a gasp.

He looked around wildly for a moment then spotted her outline in the dark and visibly relaxed.

"Whatsa matter?" he asked.

She paused, trying to think of a way to say it that didn't sound too pathetic. "I'm cold," she whispered.

He didn't bat an eye. He raised a corner of the sleeping bag fabric and motioned for her to join him. "Climb aboard," he said.

She crawled inside eagerly. He had removed his prosthetic limbs for comfort so he pulled her close with his good arm.

The cold of the night pressed in around them. Temperatures it would seem could drop to freezing levels here in the Outback during the night, even in spring and summer. They were using special military grade thermal sleeping bags lined with heat-reflective sheeting that were so thin they could fold up to something the size of a piece of paper. They were very effective at keeping their occupants warm, but still, Jamie did not comment on the probability of Satya actually being cold. He was not going to miss an opportunity to hold her close against him.

She framed his jawline with her fingers and watched his face closely. She desperately wanted to reaffirm their connection after what they had gone through that day, but knew there wasn’t much they could do surrounded by their sleeping teammates. She pulled him close, eyes fluttering closed, and kissed him. Obligingly, he returned her enthusiasm and deepened their kiss.

When she was almost out of air she pulled away and he continued, unfazed, dropping kisses down the sensitive column of her neck. She hummed her appreciation quietly, cautious not to awaken her sleeping colleagues. Her fingers caught in his hair. She had been missing this for days now.

“Are you angry?” she asked him. She was thinking about the way he had looked sitting around the campfire that night.

He sighed. “Only at myself,” he replied. “For getting us all into this mess.”

"You haven't been yourself these last few days," Satya said absently. He grazed his good hand up her side, wanting feel as much of her as he could. Luckily for him, she was only wearing a thin t-shirt as pyjamas. He was bare except for a pair of undershorts.

“Hmmm,” was his only response. He found the hollow of her throat and stuck his nose there, breathing deep.

Jamie was quiet for a long time. With the coverings pulled up over their heads, she couldn’t see anything, only feel his inquiring fingers as they grazed her ribs. “It’s this place,” he said finally. “It makes my head go funny. Of all the places in the world we needed to go on a mission, it just had to be here.”

She pressed her lips to his forehead. “We won’t have to spend any more time here than is necessary,” she said. “We’ll be gone in just a couple of days.”

She could feel his fingers on her hip now. He nudged one of his knees between her thighs, making her bend her legs around him. Lying here together, it was like been cocooned safely away from the rest of the world. Satya felt like only the two of them existed in perfect symmetry for one moment. He stilled and held her close; like he wanted to go further but knew he couldn’t.

Finally, he spoke, “I feel like nothing I ever do will make these people not hate me. The best I can hope for is being tolerated.”

Satya thought back to when Overwatch recruited Jamie and how their driving motivation was not to obtain a new agent, but to specifically prevent a madman and his immovable bodyguard from joining Talon. Jamie must have felt like he wasn't even truly wanted by the rest of the Overwatch team.

“I just can’t believe that after everything, these people just want me dead,” he said quietly. His breath was hot and shaky against her skin. “They chew you up and spit you out just like that. Like you’re worthless.”

“You’re not worthless,” she pointed out firmly.

“It’s hard to remember that when everyone else keeps telling you that you are.”

The same fierceness that had come over Satya earlier when she confronted Kat by the campfire, resurfaced again. "Listen to me. These people do not define you. You don't have to live your life by the limitations they have tried to place on you.” Satya wished it wasn’t so dark inside this sleeping bag. She wanted to see his face so badly.

He said nothing. She pulled him close so that his head was tucked against the crook of her neck and they lay together like that, unmoving, for some time.

“Do you know why I wanted to be your girlfriend?” she whispered in the dark. Jamie had almost forgotten; it was her that asked him out in the end. He had expressed plenty of interest, he had flirted with her, but she had been uncertain and distant at first. He had given her space and almost given up hope when, in the end, she finally made a move. He was glad that it had been a decision she made on her own without coercion.

He thought about his answer for a minute and then, when he couldn’t think of a reasonable response, shrugged. She felt the movement against her skin.

“Because no one ever treated me as well as you did,” she said quietly. “To everyone else I was always seen as something to be used, manipulated. But you were kind and funny and… you were respectful and patient. You saw me for who I was and accepted me. You forgave me for the things I’ve done.” Her breath hitched in her throat. Their coverings felt like cupped hands, and they were sharing secrets underneath. “You have a good heart,” she added. Her voice was raw.

“Satya…” He didn’t know what to say, so he kissed her. He had never been good with words, so he showed her how he felt.

He could feel the cool metal of her gauntlet pressed against his back. She tended to keep it on at all times even when she slept. She had told him once that its presence was comforting.

They lay still and quiet for some time before he spoke again. “Are you going back to Vishkar after this,” he asked quietly, almost hesitantly. The question surprised her.

She considered her answer for some time. The more time she spent outside of the Vishkar Corporation, the more she came to see the company in a different light. Working for Overwatch had shown her new perspectives and ways of living she’d never thought possible before. It was where she had met Jamie and everyday he surprised her with the depth of his understanding and caring for her and his teammates. She was beginning to learn who she was apart from Vishkar, beginning to learn just how many possibilities lay out there for her. But it was frightening thinking she might not have the security of Vishkar one day. So, she told herself she was going to go slow and think about her options for the time being. So far Jamie had respected her boundaries.

She was a woman who had her entire life planned out in front of her and she had once intended to make every effort to ensure her vision came to fruition. But like with so many plans, there was always something unexpected that could happen and change the whole course of events. Like falling in love with an explosives-obsessed madman. Truth be told, the thought of abandoning her life as a Vishkar architect was terrifying and not knowing what the future may hold was a concept so foreign, it made her stomach twist with unease.

Finally, she said, “I don’t know.”

The coverings shifted, like Jamie had nodded. It was a better answer than he had been expecting. After a while, he said, “I want yer safe, Symmie.” He used his nickname for her. It made her smile.

“I know,” she whispered back.

He nestled gently into the crook of her neck and breathed deep. She ran her fingers through his hair encouragingly and leaned back. The soft riverbed sand beneath them moulded comfortably to the shape of their bodies. Satya looked up. Through the rustling leaves of the tree tops above, the stars shone with startling clarity here thousands of miles away from any major city. The constellations were unfamiliar to her yet nonetheless beautiful.

Tapping experimentally at the back of Jamie’s neck, she found him unresponsive. His breathing had evened out. He was asleep.

Satya assumed a comfortable position and turned her attention back to the stars once more. They lay there pressed comfortably along the length of each other under the bedroll, holding the other close until dawn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I picture Jamie’s hair like this after a couple of years working for Overwatch: https://blastedking.tumblr.com/post/165299789848/im-back-at-home-i-can-draw-again-and-by-god-how


	5. Chapter 5

"Hurry up, or I’m going to be late!"

It had taken a while to roll everyone out of bed that morning so they were running late. Hana only stirred after Bluey jumped all over her sleeping back and licked her face until she rose, gripping her sides from laughing so hard and calling, “I surrender, I surrender!”

Now they were making their way across rocky terrain towards a line of bushes up ahead. It was still early morning and it was still reasonably cool, but the sun was heating the air around them quickly. Jamie was jogging to keep up with Kat who was surging ahead. She was swift on her feet, bounding nimbly over saltbush and craggy rocks as she cut a path. He was slightly less graceful on his peg leg.

Jamie watched from a distance as Kat arrived at the line of bushes before anyone else and reached forward to pull a sheet of camouflage netting off of something large and metal with a flourish. The netting revealed a dirt bike. Kat immediately set about folding and stashing the netting away then got to work fitting her supplies into the various saddlebags clipped to the side of the vehicle. 

Jamie left his team under the shade of the only tree nearby and headed over to Kat and the dirt bike. Hana promptly snatched up a stick from the ground and started a game of fetch with Bluey.

Kat was digging something out of a sidebag as Jamie approached.

“Here.” She tossed a wad of black fabric at him. “You’ll need to disguise yourself a bit better than that,” she said nodding towards his shorts and singlet. He caught the fabric out of the air and shook it out to get a better look. It was black, oversized hoodie with a faded design on the back. Jamie noted it was clearly a men's size. Even on Jamie it was going to be too big and he was 6'6". "Hey, did this belong to--?" 

"Yes," Kat answered abruptly before he could finish the question. She was suddenly busy fiddling with the straps of the bike’s saddlebags, avoiding his gaze. "I want that back, by the way. You better not rip any holes in it or burn it or anything," she told him sternly.

"Scouts honour," Jamie said with a three-finger salute by way of making a promise. He was suddenly serious. "What... uh... happened to Corey anyway?"

"He fucked off to Sydney with some chick," Kat said, roughly strapping her swag onto the rear of the bike.

Jamie watched her without saying anything for a moment. "Ah, sorry, darl’. It was me that introduced you and all.”

She shrugged. "S'alright. I got my eye on someone else."

Jamie donned particularly smug look. "Well I'm sorry if you've been carrying a torch for me, love, but I'm spoken for..."

"Not you!" She laughed and pushed him--almost off balance--for emphasis. He laughed too. Kat realised it was the first time since running into him again that she had felt like laughing. She was instantly reminded of when they had been kids together; he always found a way to lift her mood when they were younger.

She shared a rare smile with him. "Alright," she said. "Let's get this over with."

Kat took out her binoculars and clambered onto the nearest boulder large enough to lift her into a position to better view their surroundings. Jamie joined her. Before them lay a vast flat plain filled with red dirt, scrub and little else. A roughly hewn dirt track cut a path through the land, starting from the southernmost edge and disappearing behind a rise to the north. She combed the area carefully with the binoculars for some time and, seemingly satisfied, hopped down to head back over to the bike.

She picked up the radio receiver attached to the side. "This is Kat. Come in?"

There was silence, and then a crackled and very distant male voice came over the speakers. "Go ahead."

"You're all clear for entry. No bandits detected in the area."

"Thanks, mate," the man said. "How are you finding scout duty?" he added.

"Not too bad," Kat replied. "It's only my third shift but I'm getting the hang of it. Although, you run into some interesting people on scout duty." She fixed Jamie with a pointed look and he grinned back at her.

"You be careful out there in the wastes, alright darl'?" the man said.

"No worries," Kat replied. While they were talking, a small plume of dust appeared at the southernmost point of the dirt track where the path disappeared from view. A large Mack truck was trundling along the track throwing dirt up into the air. Jamie assumed the driver was who Kat was talking to.

Kat was watching the truck through the binoculars. "Proceed to the main entrance. I'll watch your back," Kat said, readjusting the rifle slung over one shoulder.

"Copy that," the man said.

Kat hesitated. Jamie was watching her closely. Kat met his gaze and raised the receiver to her mouth again. "Nate? There's one more thing."

"Yeah?" the man called Nate asked.

"I need a favour."

"Okay?"

"I got some friends who need to get into Junkertown without being seen. No questions asked. Can they catch a ride with you?"

There was no response, just the sound of static for a moment.

"You know we're not supposed to do that, Kat..."

Jamie held his mouth in a grim line. This was their only shot.

“I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.” Kat continued.

“Well… I mean…” Nate was struggling for words. “It’ll cost you—”

Jamie nodded his ascent at Kat. “They can pay.” Kat confirmed. Jamie made a few signals with his hand at Kat which she interpreted and relayed to Nate. “Fifteen thousand credits. They’ll wire it to you. They just can’t be seen. No questions,” she reiterated. Jamie was already motioning to the rest of his team to come over. Bluey lead the charge, bounding happily over the saltbush towards them.

“Okay,” Nate said. “Meet me at the water station?”

“I can’t,” Kat replied. “I’ve got to finish my shift.” Kat watched as Jamie exchanged words briefly with Lena, who nodded, and they all gathered their things ready to depart. “They’ll meet you there. Ask for Lena; she’ll make sure you get paid.” She paused. “Thanks, Nate. I appreciate it.”

“Copy that.” And with that the line cut out.

Kat replaced the receiver in its cradle as Jamie jogged back over to her. “We’re ready,” he said.

She nodded. “Bye, Jamie. Take care,” she reached forward and hugged him. “Sorry about all that before…”

“No worries, love,” he smiled. “You really saved my arse today.”

“It was good to see you.” She smiled back at him.

“You too, mate.”

When she pulled back, she saw that his teammates had arrived. She exchanged farewells with them. They waved as she mounted the dirt bike. She whistled hard and Bluey came bolting over. He leapt up on the rear of the bike with practised ease and stood on hind legs with two front paws on Kat’s shoulder blades for balance. Remarkably, he stayed upright like that as Kat jerked the kickstart with her foot and took off, sans helmet, towards her next destination.

Jamie watched her go until she disappeared into the bush. Lena tugged on his arm. “Come on,” she said.

Jamie tucked the hoodie Kat had given him into his backpack and everyone set off down the hill towards a rusted, wind-powered water pump towering just a few hundred metres away. The dirt track lead right up to it and they could see the plume of dust cast into the air by the truck growing larger as it neared them. They arrived just as the truck was pulling up.

The driver stopped, climbed out of the cabin. He was a tall man in his thirties with dark skin and long black hair. He tipped his hat up to get a better look at them. “Lena?” he asked, looking at the girls gathered in front of him. Lena stepped forward. “Let’s do this quick.” Nate said. He pulled out a small device from his shirt pocket. Lena also retrieved a small tablet from her bag. She touched it to Nate’s device briefly. Nate pulled back and watched the screen intently. After a moment, he raised his eyebrows after seeing the funds successfully transferred to his account, like he was surprised it actually happened.

“Okay,” he said, eyebrows still raised. “Um, in the back then.”

Nate pulled open the Mack truck’s doors to reveal a huge shipping container stacked with pallets and boxes of supplies. Kat had explained that this was the only means of transporting food and sundries into Junkertown. Everything got trucked in from the nearest major city.

Nate seemed eager to get back on the road. Nervously, he ushered them all inside and shut the doors behind them. Suddenly they were thrown into darkness with only the sound of Nate’s footfalls as he headed back to the truck’s cabin to be heard.

Mei felt behind her and undid her rucksack to let Snowball out. Relishing the feeling of finally being free, he zoomed around their heads making beeping noises of pleasure. All that could be seen was the blue glow from his display screen.

“Snowball, we need some light,” Mei told him. Snowball switched to flashlight mode and the shipping container was flooded with a soft blue glow. Everyone took a moment to look around.

“Don’t touch anything,” Lena advised them all. “We don’t want anyone to know we were here.”

The truck rumbled back to life and jolted forward, forcing everyone to grab hold of something for balance. Hana pitched sideways into Lúcio with a cry of alarm. He steadied her with a hand on her shoulder and they took a seat together on the floor of the shipping container.

“By my calculations, we are approximately an hour’s drive away,” Mei said. She was tracking their progress using the GPS in her tablet. “That puts our arrival at somewhere between 11am to 12 noon.”

Lena nodded. “We should go over the plan once more,” she said.

Satya heard a rustling noise behind her and turned to see Jamie was rifling through the contents of a shipping crate.

“Jamie,” she said in a warning tone. “Lena _just_ said not to touch anything.”

“I’m just looking,” came his muffled reply. He was bent over, half hanging out of a large box. He was pulling things out to examine them one-by-one.

He found something interesting and gasped audibly. “These are the _best_!” He was holding what looked like a bag of colourful gob-stopper confectionaries aloft. “There’s a whole box of them too! We used to use these like currencies when I was a kid. Hard to come by…”

Satya watched as he took several packets and stuffed them into his backpack.

“Jamie…” Satya started to say.

“We might need ‘em,” he said with a wink. “I’ll explain later.” He shouldered his back pack which appeared much heavier suddenly and took a seat beside her.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. Lena went over the plan and made sure everyone understood their parts. “Don’t forget,” she added. “First sign of danger, escort Hana to the nearest open area so she can call down her mech. Any trouble, activate your beacons on your wristwatches and the dropship will be there in minutes to back us up.”

The truck’s breaks whined loudly and the whole vehicle came to a sudden halt. Everyone shouldered their backpacks and Mei stuffed Snowball back into her rucksack ready to go. Jamie put on the hoodie Kat had given him. It was going to be hot outside, far too hot to be wearing a thick hoodie, but it was better to be uncomfortable and disguised than otherwise.

Muffled voices could be heard outside the truck. Jamie identified one of them as Nate’s. He tensed, waiting with baited breath and eyes trained on the door to the shipping container for movement. A voice rang out loudly. “Pull her ‘round back mate!”

The truck lurched forward again. They could hear the sounds of talking and shouting outside the truck as though they were passing through a busy marketplace. Jamie felt the truck twisting and turning slowly underneath him and in his mind’s eye he could see the truck making its way through familiar streets towards the loading bays. To think Junkertown, after all this time, was just on the other side of those steel doors…

Finally, the truck halted. Lena nodded to her team, and they each crouched at the sides of the large doors, ready to move.

“How was the trip?” a man’s voice asked from the other side of the door.

“Yeah, yeah,” came Nate’s reply. “All good, mate.”

“No worries,” the other voice sounded again. “Let’s just check everything is in order in here…”

The sound of the crossbars that held the doors closed being released could be heard. The occupants of the shipping container looked at each other in alarm. They hadn’t prepared for this; they had assumed Nate would wait until all was clear and then release them. They couldn’t be seen! If this person that was with Nate found them, their whole cover would be blown.

“About that!” Nate said shakily. He seemed nervous about being found with stowaways. “Can we do that later?”

“We gotta do it now, Nate. You know that,” the other man said. Jamie raised his frag launcher, and moved into a defensive stance. He had a feeling this was about to get ugly.

“Well…uh… can I bend your ear for a tic, mate?” Nate asked suddenly. “There was this weird noise in the engine on the way here. You know about engines, right? Can you take a look for me?”

The other man paused. “Oh, sure. What did it sound like?”

“Well, it was sort of a weird thumping noise…” Nate started and the voices retreated to the front of the truck.

Everyone visibly sighed with relief. Lena tested the door and saw that Nate had left if open for them. She motioned to the others to follow her and, cracking the door open just enough to permit them, they climbed down out of the truck.

The sun was suddenly very hot and blinding after sitting in the relatively cool, dark shipping container. Jamie had only a moment to take in the familiar sight of Junkertown’s towering ramshamble buildings that framed the courtyard they were standing in. Behind them was a large loading bay, mostly empty except for Nate’s truck. There was no one around Jamie noted, with the exception of Nate and a red-headed man who were both standing on top of the front wheel house of the Mack truck so they could get a better look at the engine.

The six of them dashed quickly across the packed earth towards an alleyway nearby. They paused in the safety of the darkened alley to regroup.

“Gods,” Satya said after she had caught her breath. “That was close.”

They nodded in agreement and stowed their weapons again in their backpacks.

“Remember; we can’t be seen,” Lena told them all. There was sweat on her brow. “Jamie, lead the way.”

Jamie lead them down several back passages as they moved deeper into Junkertown. The whole town was like a rabbit warren Satya noted and she was instantly disorientated. Jamie however, seemed to know exactly where to go. He was silent the entire time they walked, head pointed down hidden beneath the black hood and hands fisted in his pockets.

They avoided the main streets, but Satya caught glimpses of a few large thoroughfares through doorways and cracks in the walls. Everything seemed to be constructed out of an odd assortment of brightly coloured junk. Electricity wires crisscrossed overhead. She spotted a lively marketplace and heard laughter on the breeze and voices calling out. The shade of the towering buildings seemed to keep the streets below relatively cool.

A gaggle of children suddenly pushed past them, running full pelt and screaming down the corridor they found themselves in. Everyone tensed, remembering Lena had told them not to be seen, but the kids passed without sparing them a second glance. A couple of women—mothers, perhaps, Satya wondered—followed soon after, chatting casually. The women also paid them no mind and moved on.

Eventually Jamie lead them down a narrow set of stairs and they found themselves in another alley surrounded by wooden pallets and waste bins. He knocked on the frame of a fly-screen door nearby and waited. Through the screen, Satya could hear the sound of people talking loudly and the clink of cutlery.

“ _Qǐngwén?_ ” Jamie called into the doorway when no one seemed to respond. Mei was watching him curiously.

There was a shuffling of feet and then a middle-aged lady of Asian descent appeared at the door, wiping her hands on a stained apron. She looked confused but then Jamie dropped the hood of his jumper and the woman got a good look at him.

“Jamie?” she asked. A smile broke out on her face. “ _Nǐ hǎo ma?_ ”

He grinned. “ _Wǒ hěn hǎo, nǐ ne?_ ”

She smiled in reply and took a few steps towards him. She looked him over like she was admiring how he had changed. “Oh, it’s good to see you,” she said with a sigh. Then she seemed to realise something. “But, you’re not supposed to be here!”

“We know,” Jamie said flatly. “Can we talk?”

The woman suddenly realised they were standing in the open. “Yes, yes. Come in! I’m in the middle of the lunch time rush, but I’ll be done soon. I’ll make you all some noodles!” the woman said, smiling widely at Jamie and his friends. She ushered them inside and soon they were all standing around a large kitchen with wonderful smells emanating from the pots on the industrial cooktop nearby.

“Bruce-y!” the woman called through a doorway. “You’ll never believe who it is! _Hǎojǐu bújiàn!_ ”

Satya peeked around a doorjamb and saw the room on the opposite side opened up onto a bustling main street and there stood a white man behind a counter serving take away food to people seated on the other side. An assortment of people were laughing and standing about in the street beyond. The man, Bruce, came limping into the backroom upon being called, wearing an apron and a harassed look on his face. He sported a peg leg just like Jamie. The woman headed out the front to take over the shop.

Bruce seemed surprised to see so many people in his back kitchen all of a sudden but his eyes soon came to rest on Jamie’s face. “Stone the crows,” he said quietly. “What’re you doing ‘ere?”

“It’s a bit of a long story,” Jamie grinned back at him. “I need a favour, mate. Can we hide out here for a tic? There’s a lot to explain.”  
Bruce said nothing, just stared at him. Then he nodded. “Alright,” he grumbled. “But let me finish up here.” He nodded towards the front of the shop for emphasis, then disappeared through the doorway again.

“We have asked for a lot of favours in the last couple of days,” Lúcio remarked.

Jamie introduced the woman to them as Lin. She came bustling back through in between customers so she could set out six bowls on a little table and ladle noodles and broth for them. Satya hadn’t realised how hungry she was until she saw the food set out before her. They dug in while they waited for Bruce to finish up.

“This is much better than instant!” Hana said, gulping down her food enthusiastically.

Lin set out some gyoza dumplings and green tea as well. Mei and Lin got to talking in Mandarin about what, Satya had no idea. Around 2pm, Bruce finally emerged from the shop front. He wiped his face on a towel.

“A shipment just came in, Lin,” Bruce said.

“Oh really?” she said, looking up from her conversation with Mei. Jamie and Lena exchanged knowing looks.

Bruce watched the latest arrivals in his kitchen with suspicion. “I gotta go get some things before all the good stuff is gone,” he said. He turned to Jamie and added, “Wait here.”

Jamie nodded and leaned back in his chair.

“We need Chinese cabbage,” Lin called after her husband as he headed for the back door.

Bruce seemed to pause for a second before turning to say to Jamie, “Everything in this room is counted.” And with that he turned and left. Jamie raised an eyebrow in response.

“Don’t mind him,” Lin said. “He’s just grumpy because the shop was so busy today. Oh! I know! I’ll make you some boba tea! That’s your favourite isn’t it, Jamie?”

Jamie looked like all his Christmases had come at once. “Lin, you’re an absolute darl’.”

When everyone had had their fill, Lin started to clear away the dishes. There was a chorus of offers to help her with the cleaning. Satya saw Jamie step out of the hot kitchen into the alleyway to get some fresh air and followed him.

He spotted her from the corner of his eye. “You okay?” he asked her as she stepped outside. They were secluded away from the main street here. Jamie seemed unconcerned about them being sighted.

“I was about to ask you that,” she said. He opened his arms, and she gratefully stepped into them. He rested his chin on top of her head. “We don’t have to be here any longer than necessary,” she reminded him. He nodded.

“Not long now,” he said in response.

There was a rustle of movement and they both turned to see two small boys, no older than six or seven, standing at the mouth of the alleyway. They were barefoot and dressed in torn clothing. They seemed startled to see anyone else there, and took hesitant steps backwards.

“G’day,” said Jamie. He motioned for them to come closer. “Lin, there’s some kids waiting,” he called back towards the kitchen.

Lin’s head popped out of the back door and lighted with pleasure to see the small children in the alley. She came out a moment later with some items wrapped in paper. The kids came forward and took them eagerly, stuffing what Satya assumed was wrapped food into their pockets. The children watched Jamie and Satya warily out of the corners of their eyes.

“Hey,” Jamie said, beckoning them closer again. “See this?” He pulled one of the gob-stoppers that he had taken from the truck out of his pocket.

That seemed to pique their interest. They drew nearer.

“Who’s in charge?” Jamie asked.

“Me,” the taller boy said. Jamie reached out as though to give it to him, then snatched it away before the boy could touch it.

“Who’s _really_ in charge?” Jamie asked.

The boy looked thoroughly perturbed. He went to the mouth of the alley and motioned to somebody out of sight. An even bigger boy, maybe ten or so years old, with dark skin joined them. Satya thought he was an aboriginal boy.

“You got any joeys?” Jamie asked. Satya watched the whole exchange in confusion. What did he mean by ‘joeys?’

The older boy eyed him warily. “What do you wanna know for?” he asked.

Jamie waved a whole packet of gob-stoppers at the older boy. That caught his attention. “You can have all of these. Just bring down some joeys for the girls to see.” Jamie motioned over his shoulder. The boy looked and saw in addition to Satya, three more girls and Lúcio standing in the kitchen through the open doorway. “Tourists,” Jamie said by way of explanation.

The boy looked Jamie up and down, then turned and nodded to the other children. The three of them took off running. Satya and Jamie watched the boys run off and disappear out of sight around a corner up ahead.

“How did you know what they were here for?” Satya asked quietly.

Jamie was silent, as though he was considering his answer. “Because this is where me and the others used to come for a free feed every now and again,” he replied without meeting her gaze.

It felt strange to hear him confirm her suspicions out loud. That he had once been a parentless-child living on the streets, dependent on hand-outs. “Kat too?” she asked.

He nodded.

She said nothing. There was no judgement, no silent revulsion. Just acceptance.

“Why do you need to bribe them?” she asked.

“It’s best to have them on your side,” Jamie smirked. “People call ‘em ‘ _junkrats_.’ They usually do odd jobs for lollies. They know Junkertown backwards and forwards, and see a lot of what goes on around here. They can be a very helpful ace up your sleeve.”

They only had to wait about five or ten minutes before the boys came bounding back, this time with small cloth sacks clutched in their arms.

“Oi,” Jamie called into the kitchen. “You better get out here, Hana. You’re gonna want to see this.”

Two of the boys paused and bent as though to tip out the contents of their sacks on to the ground. Satya watched intently as something small and furry rolled out of each sack. Her cheeks flushed immediately.

There standing in front of her were two of the tiniest kangaroos she had ever seen. There was a loud gasp from behind them. Satya turned to see Hana had emerged from the kitchen doorway, her eyes the size of dinner plates.

“Finally!” Hana cried. “ _Kangaroos!_ ”

The small creatures starting hopping about and Lúcio had to hold Hana upright when she almost collapsed from cuteness overload.

The smallest boy walked up to Satya, the contents of his sack still a mystery. Satya watched intently as he uncovered something small, grey and furry. He held it up so Satya could take the entire parcel. It was a baby koala, sleeping. Hana came over to peer into the cloth sack Satya was holding and almost fainted again at the sight of the tiny creature.

“Where did they come from?” Lena asked.

“They come out of their mum’s pouches when they get hit by cars,” Jamie explained. “Sometimes the truck drivers find them and drop them off here. The kids look after them like pets.”

Mei, Lena and Hana spent several minutes fretting over the tiny creatures, wanting to take pictures and cuddle them. The animals seemed unfazed by human handling. The three boys watched the entire display with bewildered looks on their faces.

After twenty minutes, the larger boy made a signal to his friends and they held out their sacks for the joeys. Obediently, the tiny kangaroos hopped over and tumbled inside. The smaller boy collected the baby koala from Hana who was reluctant to release him. “Can’t I keep him?” Hana asked Jamie, who laughed.

The older boy held out a hand expectantly to Jaime, who handed over the packet of gob-stoppers as promised. The older boy immediately bolted for the mouth of the alley, one of the other boys chasing after him and shouting angrily.

The smallest remained, watched the older boy run off with their prize. He turned to Jamie hopefully but seeing no more lollies in his hands, turned to chase after his friends. “Hey,” Jamie said to catch his attention. He pulled one last gob-stopper from his pocket and held it out for him. The young boy reached for it eagerly, and Jamie turned it over. The boy was off and racing to catch up to his friends. 

“That was awesome!” Hana was jumping in circles of pure happiness. “They were so small and so cute!” she gushed. She continued to ramble on and on about the tiny creatures for some time. As Hana went on, Satya reached for Jamie’s hand and held it cupped between both of hers. She smiled her thanks at him and he smiled back.


	6. Chapter 6

“So, whadda’ya want?”

The Overwatch agents were all sitting round the large kitchen table in the back of Bruce and Lin’s take away shop trying to artfully avoid Bruce’s prodding questions. It was just past sundown now. The sunset’s golden rays were fading but the sky was lit up a brilliant shade of pink, casting a soft glow over everything. Bruce fixed them all with a glare across the table. He was anxious to get back out the front of his shop for the evening rush.

“Nuthin’ really,” Jamie replied. He was leaning back in his chair again with his arms folded behind his head casually. “Mostly we just need a place to crash while the kids run an errand for me.”

“Also, we need to wait for it to get dark before we can attempt to cross town again,” Lena added. She was seated opposite Bruce with a tense look plastered on her face.

Bruce grunted with disapproval. He was altogether displeased to be harbouring outsiders in his kitchen, especially Jamie who he knew had been put on a blacklist. Bruce had seen him on the news a few times too, wanted for causing all sorts of mayhem around the world. He had become more notorious than Chopper Reid and Ned Kelly combined. Bruce wondered if the man could behave himself for more than ten minutes.

And now here his was, sitting in one of Bruce’s kitchen chairs with a cheeky grin on his face; a criminal on-the-run with warrants for arrest on four continents. Bruce knew Jamie had been exiled from Junkertown long ago for being a habitual troublemaker. If anyone spotted the young man, they were supposed to shoot him on sight. Bruce didn’t have the heart to turn him out on the street though. Not after his long history of feeding the young man since he started coming to his back door as a little kid. He had watched Jamie grow up to become a talented scrapper. A rogue and a larrikin too, if truth be told, and his home-made explosives were a danger to himself and others, but still.

“You in some sort of trouble, Jamie?” Bruce asked.

“Maybe,” Jamie responded mysteriously. As cheeky as ever, Bruce noted.

“Oi,” called a small voice from the other side of the fly-screen door. Jamie stood and went outside, leaving his team to deal with Bruce and his stern looks.

“Did ya tell ‘im?” Jamie asked as he closed the door behind him and descended the few steps to the packed earth of the alleyway. Satya came to the screen door to watch the exchange.

“Yeah, we told ‘im,” said the young boy. It was the same dark-skinned boy that had brought them the baby kangaroo before. “Where’s the goods?”

Jamie held out another packet of gob-stoppers and the boy snatched them up greedily. Jamie took a seat on the back step and rubbed at the back of his neck while he took a breather. “You little junkrats keeping safe?” Jamie asked conversationally.

“How do you know so much about us junkrats?” the boy asked. The light was fading fast around them.

Jamie grinned wide. “Mate, I used to be one! I was _the_ junkrat in my day. No, wait. I still am! I’m the King Junkrat!” Jamie laughed one of his trademark laughs; a high-pitched giggle filled with mirth.

The boy laughed too and waved Jamie’s comments off. “Junkrats is nothing. We’re only good for scrapping and nicking stuff,” the boy said.

Jamie’s expression changed. “You’re not nothing,” he said simply after a pause. He stood to go back inside. The boy shrugged and took off running up the alley.

Jamie watched him go, then turned to open the screen door. He started when he saw Satya on the other side watching him through the mesh. She smiled at him.

He smirked at her. “Reckon we should get ready to go, eh?” Jamie said. “It’s getting dark.” Satya nodded and they re-joined their teammates back inside.

Bruce must have gone back out the front of the shop because he was nowhere to be seen when Jamie and Satya re-entered the kitchen. Mei had decided to help Lin with the food prep—there had been nothing else to do while they waited for the sun to go down—their heads bent together as they chopped vegetables and chatted co-conspiratorially in Mandarin. Lúcio was elbow deep in suds at the kitchen sink. Hana sat at the kitchen table with a bored expression playing a video game on her gaming device. It was a bizarre sight to Jamie.

Lena sat beside Hana biting at her nails. She looked like she was about to have kittens. It was almost time for them to make their final push and go see the queen and she was nervous. Jamie clamped a hand down on Lena’s shoulder reassuringly. She looked up at him in surprise like she hadn’t known he was there.

“Come on,” he said. “Time to go.” Everyone looked up when he said that. Lena nodded and took a steadying breath. She motioned to her team.

Everyone started to move like they had been given a silent order. Lin watched them pull their backpacks onto their shoulders and move towards the door. Jamie tugged his black hoodie back on and pulled the hood up to cover his head. She hadn’t asked them what they were up to, she didn’t want to know, but she could sense the tension in the air.

She came around the kitchen table to stand before Jamie. “ _Zàijiàn_. See you, Jamie,” Lin said. Jamie gave her a quick squeeze around the shoulders with his good arm.

“Ta-ta,” he said. “Thanks for everything. And say goodbye to Bruce for me.” She nodded.

They exchanged one last smile, and with that Jamie ducked out of the back door and headed up the dark alley with his team. Lin watched them go through the screen door.

Jamie took the lead again, guiding them through darkened side passages and back alleys where possible. Although the streets were emptier than they were during the day time, there were still some dark figures loitering here and there. They twisted and turned down the endless passageways, relying on Jamie’s knowledge of his former home to guide them.

They pressed on. They took a flight of stairs up and headed down a dark corridor. The wall to their right ended abruptly and suddenly there was a sheer drop from the second floor to the ground. Below was the main street lit only by a few bare bulbs dangling from the electricity wires above. Across the other side was a lit-up neon sign that read “PUB” where the sound of live music and cheering floated up out of the open doors. There was laughter and people staggering about outside.

Jamie urged them onwards. Up ahead, Satya spotted a large green appropriated highway sign that had the original text largely scrubbed out and spray painted over the top in red; “ _Scrapyard_ ” with an arrow pointing to the right. The Scrapyard was the main arena for Junkertown’s mech battles, but it also served as the queen’s throne room. It once housed a massive, automated factory owned by the omnics. A rustling sound overhead drew Satya’s attention upward. A banner was flying over the entrance to the Scrapyard, a sword crossed over a club beneath what Satya thought must be an omnic’s head casing. _How barbaric_ , she thought to herself.

Jamie motioned for them to follow him over to a small corridor to one side of the main entrance. Not far down the corridor was a door with a padlock on it. Jamie swore. “This was not supposed to be locked,” he remarked. He examined the lock for a moment, then said, “I’ll need a few minutes.”

Everyone promptly concealed themselves in the darkness of the unlit corridor and waited. Jamie was searching his pockets for something that would help him with the lock. Suddenly, Jamie stopped. “What’s wrong?” Satya whispered.

Jamie was still patting down his pockets. He fumbled around for some time, face screwed up in concentration. “That’s funny,” he muttered. He looked at Satya. “How many cherry bombs did I give to that Dale bloke?” he asked her. “Was it five?”

“Four,” she confirmed.

“Those little buggers,” Jamie frowned. “I’m missing a cherry bomb. I reckon a kid pick-pocketed it back in the alley.”

“Should we try to find them?” Satya was worried one of the children might hurt themselves with it.

“Nah, should be fine,” Jamie said. “They’re smart kids. They won’t get hurt. They might even bring in back. It’s just annoying to be down on supplies.”

He scrounged up the last few remaining cherry bombs that he had. He cracked them open and started squeezing the putty inside together around the padlock. Everyone stood well back to ensure they were not in any danger. Lena tried to focus on keeping her breathing under control. Her leg was jiggering with nerves. Hana reached over and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Lena shared a smile with her. She tried to focus her thoughts on the task at hand. Never had so much been at stake during one of their missions. She needed to ensure this one was a success; for all their sake’s. And for Emily too. But they couldn’t stay like this in the open for much longer or they would be caught…

Lena had barely finished her thought when suddenly there were footsteps in the passageway that adjoined with the corridor they were standing in. Satya looked at Jamie with an expression of alarm which he returned. They couldn’t set off the explosion and destroy the padlock now for fear of drawing attention to themselves. Whoever was the owner of the footsteps would be upon them in seconds. They all squeezed further down the corridor waited with baited breath as the footsteps drew nearer.

Lúcio who was standing nearest to the passageway beyond their corridor, leaned around the corner and spotted a dark figure walking in their direction. The man stopped when he was within viewing range of the corridor and stared. Lúcio whipped his head back around and tried to remain as still as possible. The footsteps started up again, this time moving with purpose towards their corridor.

Suddenly the figure spoke in an unfamiliar gruff voice.

“Jamie?”

“Mick?” Jamie whispered back.

“Holy fucking shit,” the man said. Slipping into the corridor beside them, he got a good look at Jamie’s face and said again, “Holy fucking shit! How in the hell did you get in here? You’re not supposed to be here!”

The man, Mick, squeezed in closer, casting looks over his shoulder to check no one else could hear or see them. “I thought them kids might be joking when they told me you were here. Thought I’d keep an eye out for you though. _Jesus Christ_. You know they wanna shoot you right?” Mick asked. Satya could hardly see anything in this dim light but she could vaguely make out that Mick was exceedingly tall and thin, even taller than Jamie, with dark skin. He seemed to be of Sudanese descent.

“We’re trying to get to the queen. Can you help us?” Jamie asked.

“What the _fuck_ ,” Mick said through grit teeth. Satya could tell he wanted to yell at Jamie but he kept his voice down. “Of course not! I’m one of her personal guards! I’m supposed to be on duty right now. Besides, you probably want to kill her or something…”

“We don’t want to hurt her!” Lena interjected. “We just want to talk.”

“I’ve come to make good on my taxes,” Jamie explained. “And we just wanna… have a bit of a catch-up, ya know?”

Mick could tell he wasn’t being told the whole story, but part of him also really didn’t want to know what kind of mess Jamie had gotten into now. They had been mates for some years but Mick did not always approve of Jamie’s decision-making process. It seemed to get him into a lot of trouble. But if Jamie was here to give the queen what he owed her, maybe that would mean he’d get taken off the blacklist? That would be a good thing, right? But why did he need five other people with him to help him do it?

Mick eyed Jamie’s friends warily. “Who’s this lot? Outsiders are not allowed in ‘ere,” he said, taking a swig of water from his canteen.

Jamie looked around and realised introductions were in order. Satya was immediately to his right so he motioned to her first. “This is Satya, my girlfriend…”

Mick sprayed his mouthful of liquid all over the gathered agents in surprise. “What? ‘Girlfriend?’ _You_?” Mick sputtered.

“Is this just something Australians do?” Lúcio asked, wiping at the droplets on his cheek.

Jamie fisted his hands in his hair out of frustration then rubbed his face. “Why is this so difficult for people to believe?” he muttered into his palms.

Satya cut in, “Look, are you going to help us or not? If not, we really must be going.” She fixed Mick with a look of annoyance. Mick couldn’t see much in the darkness of the corridor but he could see Satya’s eyes glinting fiercely at him, her hands resting on her flared hips, long dark hair pulled back over her shoulders. Mick couldn’t understand why someone so beautiful would be caught dead with a dropkick like Jamie. 

Introductions forgotten, Mick stared back at her and looked as though he was considering what to do next.

“Come on!” Jamie pleaded. “I’m the one who helped you get this job anyway!”

Mick looked like he was struggling with something internally. “Oh, all right!” he said in an exasperated tone. “As long as you’re not going to hurt the queen.”

“We won’t, we promise!” Lena whispered.

Mick nodded. “Well, you won’t get in that way.” He motioned to the padlocked door.

“Why not?” Jamie asked.

“That’s a storage cupboard,” Mick said.

“Oh,” Jamie said, eyeing the door. He had just wasted his last cherry bombs on a storage cupboard and he wasn’t even going to get to blow it up now. “Thought this was one of the back ways in. It’s been a while since I was last here,” he said sheepishly.

“Follow me,” Mick said and lead them out of the corridor. He took them down a flight of stairs to another locked door. He took out a set of keys and unlocked it with practised ease. They slipped inside and Mick closed the door behind them. Lena stopped to look around and realised they were in some kind of betting shop. Spent paper tickets littered the floor and rustled underfoot. On the opposite wall was a line of roller-shuttered windows with “BETTING” scrawled above each kiosk.

They followed Mick through another door that opened up into a cavernous factory floor. Looking up, Lena could see the night sky glinting through the broken glass in the ceiling. A lot of dirt from the surrounding wastelands had blown in through the openings and gathered in the corners. The hum of machinery was all around them. As they made their way further across the factory floor, Lena spotted a rotating platform up ahead, presumably used to make mech battles more interesting.

Hana was beside herself in awe of the place. She was tugging on Jamie’s hoodie excitedly. “Where are the mechs, Jamie?” she asked in a hushed whisper.

“Not now, Hana,” Jamie dismissed her.

“But…”

“Sh!” Lena admonished her. “Focus please!”

They passed under the rotating device silently and turned to head towards the queen’s throne at the opposite end of the room. The plush purple throne came into view, hauntingly empty in the dark. It sat slightly raised above the arena on a platform. A speaker system was hooked up on either side. Lena was disappointed to see the queen was not sitting there waiting for them. “Where is she?” Lena asked Mick.  

“Not here. No mech battles tonight,” Mick explained. “She usually retires to her rooms on a night like this.” He led them around the back of the throne to another locked door. He unlocked this one too and they found themselves standing in a dimly lit corridor.

Satya rubbed her temples where she could feel a headache coming on. “This place is like a labyrinth,” she commented. As they made their way down the corridor, Jamie peeked through a doorway that was slightly ajar. Something shiny was reflecting the light from the corridor back at them. He gasped audibly and stepped towards the glow, feet moving of their own volition. “Ooh… shiny….”

Mick turned in time to see Jamie pushing to door open fully. “What the… That should be locked,” Mick started to say.

“Gold…” Jamie was saying quietly, staring in awe at the piles and piles of the stuff. “Beautiful gold!” he exclaimed.

“It’s the queen’s,” Mick tried to pull Jamie away from the mountains of coins and other valuables. “Come on…”

“What does the queen need all of this for?” Mei asked.

“It’s beautiful…” Jamie was drooling.

“Not now, Jamie!” Hana said with a laugh and helped Mick drag him away. 

They continued up several flights of stairs. They only had to paused briefly in a corridor where they could hide while a couple of patrolling guards passed by. They remained unseen and after the guards were out of sight, they carried on towards their destination.

Mick eventually came to a halt in front of a large door. “Alright,” he said as he turned to Jamie. “This is as far as I go. The queen’s chambers are through this door. She’ll most likely be down the hall, second room on the left. I’ll try to keep the guards away from this area.”

“Mick, I owe ya big time, mate,” Jamie said.

“Buy me a beer later,” Mick replied. “Good luck. She won’t be pleased to see you.” Mick felt more than a little uneasy helping these strangers infiltrate the queen’s private chambers, but he trusted Jamie when he said he wasn’t going to hurt her. He also knew the queen was more than capable of protecting herself so he wasn’t too worried. “I gotta get back to my shift. See ya,” Mick said and quickly headed back the way they had come.

Jamie watched him go. He turned to Lena, who nodded at him in understanding. This was it. They had bent Jack’s rules a bit about getting in to Junkertown undetected, but still, they had finally made it and their mission was almost complete. Lena motioned for her teammates to prepare their weapons and everyone began pulling equipment from the backpacks.

Mei hung back; she intended to keep Snowball concealed in her rucksack for now knowing that the queen would not be pleased to see a robot. Mei knew that if things got out of hand, Snowball would be ready to start a blizzard if necessary. She peeked inside the rucksack and gave it a gentle shake so as to awaken him from energy-saving mode. “Rise and shine, Snowball!” she whispered.

They moved towards the door. Lena opened it and lead them through. Before them was a long hallway lined with doors. As Mick had said, the door second on the left was emitting a glow from the gap underneath. She must be in there.

They took up positions on either side of the door. Lena held her pulse pistols ready to fire. She gave Jamie a nod and he reached for the handle. Bursting through the door, Jamie leapt onto the nearest surface, an armchair as it turned out, and whirled on the room’s only occupant with a flourish of his frag launcher. “’Tis I! Jamison Fawkes—destroyer of worlds, fighter of freedoms, and king of junkrats—here to overthrow your queendom and… and….” Jamie realised everyone was staring at him in confusion.

Mei rubbed at her face with the palm of her hand in exasperation. “Jamie…”

There was a woman sitting on a couch in the middle of the large room. She sported a lip piercing and a scar down her right cheek. She sat with a book in hand, dressed simply as though she had retired early for the night. A cup of tea was resting on the coffee table in front of her. Her purple hair was swept up into an impressive mohawk. She looked mildly confused. “What the…?” she said after a long pause.

Jamie looked uncertain. “Sorry, I… We didn’t rehearse anything and I couldn’t think of any other way to announce ourselves,” he said sheepishly and got down off the armchair.

While they were talking, Satya secured the door and set a few turrets on either side just in case. The queen watched her do so and eyed their weapons with growing alarm. “Jamison… What’re you… How’dya get in ‘ere?” The woman asked. Her accent was similar to Jamie’s. She made as if to stand but Lena motioned for her to stay still.

“We’re not here to hurt you,” Lena said. She had her pistols raised and ready, which didn’t incite a lot of confidence in the queen. “But we must ask that you do not move, your majesty.”

“We need your help,” Mei started to say.

“My help?” The queen shifted in her seat, switching her gaze to Jamie. “Why should I help you, Jamison, and your…” She searched for a word. “…allies?”

“Because you will want to hear what we have to offer you,” Satya said calmly and took a seat on the couch opposite the queen. The plan had been for Satya to do most of the talking since she was skilled in negotiations owing to her work with Vishkar Corporation.

The queen eyed her with bemusement. Satya was dressed in a white blouse and shorts which were stained in places with red ochre. Still, Satya sat primly with one leg crossed over the other, her head held high and posture oozing with confidence.

The queen nodded towards Jamie. “He said he was here to overthrow me.”

“Ignore him, he’s an idiot,” Mei said, taking a seat beside Satya.

“We have come to entreaty your support, your majesty, in seeking out a subject in your township who has participated in a vicious attack on our organisation,” Satya began. “Allow me to show you why you should help us to locate them.” She stood again, but only briefly, as she brought up her hands in front of her, her gauntlet humming with energy. She swiftly formed a large, hard-light construct above their heads with a flourish of her arms. Everyone watched as the construct took shape into the form of a magnificent glowing chandelier hanging from the perfect centre of the ceiling. It glistened beautifully in the room’s dim light.

If the act of creating the chandelier had caused Satya any fatigue, she didn’t let it show. She calmly re-took her seat. “I can do this and much more on a grander scale. I would like to offer my services to you, your majesty,” Satya explained.

The queen looked suddenly very interested in Satya’s talents. Her mind was piecing together what such skills could be put to use towards.

She said with a smile, “Call me Matilda. Or ‘Tilda’ is fine.”

“And I am Satya Vaswani,” Satya replied. “I work for an organisation known as the Vishkar Corporation of southern India. I am a high-ranking architect. Our objective is to create new, self-sustaining cities using hard-light technology. Perhaps Junkertown could benefit from such technology?”

The queen was smiling at her. “Why don’t you all have a seat?” Tilda motioned to Satya’s comrades who were still standing. They all took up seats around the coffee table. “Bit shocked to see you ‘ere,” she said with a smile looking at Jamie. “Thought I exiled you.”

“Yeah, we’re here to pay up too,” Jamie said with a smirk. “Would you be able to maybe take me and Roadie off the blacklist if I paid the taxes? Let by-gones be by-gones, ya know?” He shot her a cheeky grin like the whole thing had just been a big misunderstanding.

Tilda considered his words for some time. “The taxes…” she said nodding absently. “I s’pose that would be fair.”

“We are willing to offer a large sum of money in order to cover what Jamie owes,” Lena said.

Tilda laughed. “You know my one weakness! Ms….?”

“Call me Tracer,” Lena replied. She went on, “Someone has been attacking our friends and families. We understand this individual lives in the area. We’d like your assistance to locate this person.”

“What makes you think they live in Junkertown?” Tilda asked.

“We traced a transaction for a large sum originating from a local bank in connection with the criminal activity in question. We have to assume someone from Junkertown was involved,” Satya explained.

Jamie, disinterested in the conversation, was looking about the room with curiosity. He had never been inside this part of Junkertown before. The room was reasonably well decorated given the limited resources for their remote location. The couches were comfortable and the furniture was stately. Even an elegant-looking lamp was perched on a side table nearby. It was probably worth a few bob. 

"We're looking for someone who is connected with Jamie's past," Lena was saying. "We've already discussed possible candidates with Jamie, however, we haven't come up with any strong leads."

While Jamie observed his comfortable surroundings, he remembered the room they had passed just minutes before with the mountains of gold. Not only did the queen live comfortably, but she was sporting some serious wealth too. With a smirk he considered the possibility of nabbing some of her stash on his way out, but dismissed it when he pictured the disapproving scowl and bollocking he would receive from Lena. 

"We are looking for someone with enough funds to make such a large financial transaction," Lena went on.

The grin slipped off of Jamie's face instantly. Now that he thought about it, not many people in Junkertown had a great deal of wealth. A lot of it got paid to the queen in the form of taxes. He thought again about the mountains of gold in the room below. Jamie turned his gaze away from the fancy lamp and focused his attention on the queen so he could watch her closely. The queen was smiling pleasantly, her attention fully on Lena. 

"Perhaps you know of someone who has a vendetta against Jamie?" Lena asked. 

Jamie knew lots of people disliked him, but aside from the odd bounty hunter, the only person he knew personally who had ever had such a severe problem with him as to send people after him to threaten his life, was the queen for skimping on his taxes. Jamie started to feel sick in his stomach. 

"No one leaps immediately to mind," Tilda was saying.

Suddenly he leapt out of his chair. "Ah well, if you're not sure, we'll just be going! It's about time to choof off anyway, I reckon! So nice to see you and all!" he said with a forced smile. There was distinct nervousness to his tone. "Come on guys," he said urgently and took Satya by the upper arm to jerk her to her feet. 

She fixed him with a look of utter incomprehension. "Jamie, what are you...?" 

"There's no need to rush off," Tilda smiled at him, amused. "Take a seat."

"I'd rather not," he said with a grimace. She met his gaze evenly. 

His team was staring between him and the queen in clear confusion. Her face was difficult to read but she regarded him with a calculating look.

"Then I’ll have to convince you otherwise,” Tilda said calmly.

There was movement, far too fast for Jamie to follow. The queen had grabbed something from the back of the couch she was sitting on, a weapon of some sort that had been leaning there. She launched herself towards the door, her weapon—a spear?—cutting an arc overhead. She brought it down and with two swift strikes, destroyed the turrets on either side of the door.

Before his team could react or raise their weapons in time, the queen had spun and the point of her spear was aimed directly at Jamie’s throat, the sharp tip only a hair’s breadth from his jugular. He froze instantly, hand halfway to his satchel to reach for a concussion mine. There was a loud bang behind the queen, and into the room poured almost a dozen men, each with a weapon trained on his teammates.

“Drop your weapons, or he gets it,” Tilda growled. She was watching his team closely.

“It was her,” Jamie said as calmly as he could to his teammates. “She sent the kidnappers.”

Lena looked like she was trying to process everything that was happening. Eyes wide with realisation, she reached instinctively for her wristwatch to activate her beacon. “Don’t move!” Tilda commanded them, looking directly at Lena. “Move an inch and they’ll kill you!”

Lena looked like she was warring with herself internally. There were ten or so men standing in the room with high-power rifles trained on her and her team. Jamie was about to have his throat sliced opened if she moved. They were clearly outnumbered. She looked at her teammates and knew she didn’t want to be responsible for one of their deaths. She stilled her hands.

The queen looked at her guards. “Take their weapons and remove those things from their wrists. Be careful not to press any buttons,” she ordered. Slowly, the guards surrounded them and did as the queen directed, removing their equipment and tossing it all onto the centre of the coffee table. They took particular care when removing Jamie’s explosives from his person.

Lena finally got a good look at their captors while their backpacks were being pulled roughly from their shoulders. Dressed in ripped and dirty denim, most were carrying shotguns or rifles. They leered at her team through broken teeth and long stringy hair. She watched the guards restraining her teammates, and felt her arms similarly jerked behind her and held in place. Looking up, she was surprised to see Mick looking down at her with a scowl. So, he had betrayed them and brought the rest of the guards to ambush them. She glared at him.

One of the guards pointed his weapon at Lena's chest. "Oi, what's that?" he demanded, motioning with his weapon towards the chronal accelerator.

"Take it off her," another guard said. Lena looked fearful. If they removed the chronal accelerator, she might disappear and there was no knowing when she might show up again. Mick’s grip on her tightened almost imperceivably.

One of the guards reached for Lena. "No!" she cried. Her mind was scrambling for an excuse or explanation to keep it that these technophobes would understand. "Its a life-support machine!"

"What?" The guard's face scrunched up in confusion. Mick sighed behind her.

“Leave her be,” the queen said and the guard stepped away from Lena. “We have what we need.” She had lowered her spear from Jamie’s face and was circling the coffee table eying their gear appreciatively.

“How did you know about those?” Lena asked the queen, looking at their beacons resting on the coffee table.   
“I’ve been warned about you Overwatch mob,” Tilda remarked. She adopted a more relaxed stance, leaning against her upright spear. For the first time, Lena noticed how exceedingly tall the woman was. “Your obsession with technology and overreliance on one another. I was told you might try to call for backup. My informant was very interested in making sure you wouldn’t be around to cause her any more trouble.”

Lena’s face wrinkled up in confusion. The queen knew about Overwatch? What informant?

“What do you mean by _‘her?’_ ” Satya asked. She was half bent with her arms pulled awkwardly behind her by two guards, a pained expression on her face.

“Maybe you know her?” Tilda went on. “What was her name again? Hmmm… Sombra? Yeah, that was it.”

Lena felt a cold dread wash over her. “You’re the one who has been helping Talon?”

“Of course, dear. They were very interested in you actually, Jamie.” The queen shot a smug look back at Jamie. “Something about not being pleased with you turning down their offer.” Jamie was silent. “So they contacted me, looking a way to get to you. A way to extract some kind of revenge. We had a common goal as it turns out.”

“Why would you want revenge against Jamie?” Mei asked in a shaky tone.

“Because he owes me,” she ground out between grit teeth. She turned her attention fully on Jamie. “I know you found something valuable out there,” she said, watching him carefully. He stiffened, a dark look passing over his face. She continued, “But at first, I didn’t know what it was. There were only rumours around town. All I knew was that you were skimping on your taxes. When you didn’t pay, I kicked you out. But then some of my scouts told me they were exploring the old Omnic Core one day…” Jamie went pale. She circled him. “And they noticed something important missing from the control centre. Signs of scrapping in the area. So, I put two-and-two together...” Jamie was watching her with a look of fear. She leaned in close so she could whisper, just loud enough so only he could hear, “ _I know what you took_.”

He was watching her closely, his breath uneven.

“Now I realise exactly how much you owe me.” Tilda watched him. Her voice was low and dangerous. “Everyone _pays their share_ in Junkertown.”

Jamie said nothing. After a pause, she withdrew.

“Talon were very helpful,” she drawled. “The Talon informant told me all about your new job and your little friends. Once I learned of your location, I sent kidnappers. Your bodyguard put an end to that plan, but no worries, I knew I just had to bide my time until another opportunity came up.” Suddenly she grinned with uncontrolled glee. She laughed. “And here you all are! You all walked _right_ into my own room! This is so perfect; I could not have planned it better myself!” Jamie watched her with barely concealed contempt.

Jamie tried to jerk away from the guards who held him in place. He looked like he wanted nothing more than to lunge at the queen. She merely grinned back at him, relishing the sight of Jamie restrained in front of her. She sauntered over, her hips swaying rhythmically. She drew close and took hold of his chin so she could make sure he was paying attention to her next words. “And now I finally have you right… where I… want you.” She punctuating her words each time with a gentle tap of her fingers on his cheek. "I won't let you slip through my fingers again," she said to him haughtily.

He jerked away from her touch with a sneer. She paid no mind. “Now I just need to make you tell me where you hid your treasure.”

“Well, ya can’t have it,” he growled at her.

“Oh? I’m sure I can think of a way to make you talk,” she smiled and raised her spear to aim at his face once again.

Lena had watched the entire exchange and suddenly it all became perfectly clear to her. She knew that Talon had obtained data relating to Overwatch agents. They were now using that information to exact their revenge. Talon had always wanted to destroy Overwatch; that was nothing new. They couldn’t attack the Gibraltar base directly, security was too high, so they were going to do the next best thing and attack their loved ones. But how to strike at Jamie who had no family to speak of? They sent his own queen after him. And she would stop at nothing to get a hold of the treasure Jamie had found.

“There’s no Talon agent stationed here is there,” Lena said quietly.

“Why would there be? That literally makes no sense. But Talon had information on your activities and your whereabouts that I needed and I paid them for it. I sent the money via one of their agents. What they did after that, I have no idea.”

The crushing realisation that this whole mission was a complete waste of time was weighing on Lena. They were no closer to finding Talon headquarters, and instead, she had put her entire team in danger, especially Jamie. They were trapped, with no hope of rescue. What would become of them now? Lena dreaded the thought.

“One question remains,” Tilda said. She stood and walked over to a side table where a teapot was resting and poured herself another cup of tea. “How did you get into Junkertown, Jamie?” She turned to fix him with a pointed stare as she took a sip of her tea. “You must have had help. And I don’t mean from your little friends here, I mean someone on the inside. Care to share who that person might’ve been?”

Jamie glared and said nothing.

“Hmm, let’s see,” the queen mused. “We just had a shipment come in, right?” One of the guards nodded in confirmation. She smiled and turned back to Jamie. “That’s it, isn’t it? You came in with the shipment. You couldn’t have just walked in through the main gate, we would’ve seen you.” Jamie remained silent but Tilda noted his sharp intake of breath and took it as confirmation.

She continued, “It would’ve been impossible to sneak aboard without my scouts and drivers knowing…” She turned to one of the guards. “Check the call logs. And I want to know who was on scout duty the last few days.” The guard nodded and left the room. Jamie was gritting his teeth, his anger barely in check. Suddenly, Mei cried out, jerking him out of his reverie.

“ _Dòng zhù! Bùxǔ zǒu!_ ”

There was a flurry of activity, and something burst out of the pile of backpacks on the coffee table. Out of the corner of her eye, Jamie saw Snowball zip across the room and position himself over Tilda’s head ready to start a blizzard. Before anyone could react, Tilda was swinging her spear through the air again. The flat of her blade clipped Snowball’s side and he was knocked to the ground.

“Snowball!” Mei tried desperately to pull free from her guard’s grip. The guard released her only so he could pounce on the robot.

“You brought a robot here?” Tilda’s eyes were wild with rage as she stared at Jamie. “You know that anything with A.I. is not allowed!”

The man held Snowball pressed against the coffee table and raised the butt of his gun ready to smash the robot apart.

“No! Snowball!” Mei leapt at him and was clawing desperately at the guards’ hands with tears in her eyes. “Don’t hurt him!” she cried.

“Stop it! You don’t need to break it!” Jamie was shouting and trying to pull free from his captors.

Mick rushed over and pulled Snowball out of the other guard’s grip. “Push off, mate! You just have to remove the battery, that’s all!” Mick demonstrated by unclipping the battery pack and Snowball’s display screen faded and switched off instantly. He slipped the battery into his pocket and tossed Snowball, unresponsive, onto the cushion of an armchair. Mei reached for him but was pulled away, sobbing uncontrollably.

The queen was still angry. “You’ve gone soft,” she spat at Jamie. “Everyone knows you can’t trust A.I. Living on the outside has made you weak!”

Jamie snapped. "And your refusal to drag you and your people into the twenty-first century is killing them."

Her rage was apparent. With lightning speed, she struck Jamie across the face soundly, his head jolting to one side. He did not give her the satisfaction of making any noise. There were cries of alarm from his teammates. When he slowly brought his head up meet her gaze again, he was deathly calm. A drop of blood trickled down his chin. 

"You sicken me," she growled. "How can you trust ‘em after all they've done to us?" He knew she was referring to the robotic technology Overwatch had integrated into their operations.

"They're not what you taught us all to believe. They can be programmed for good."

"You've changed," she said quietly. Her voice had become low and dangerous. "No worries. By the time I'm done with Junkertown, no one’ll challenge me again. There’ll be no need to rely on the omnic technology that once ruined us. The sickly threat of outsider influence will not penetrate these walls."

"What are you going to do?" Satya demanded to know.

"Once I've made my fortress impenetrable, the people who think they run this country will have no choice to acknowledge my rule over this land and I'll own it outright." She turned her gaze on Satya. “I think you can help there, Ms Vaswani.”  
"You're going to make this place a micro-nation?" A look of realization passed over Jamie's face. "You can't just cut yourself off from the world and hope to survive. The rest of the world just moves on without you."

"Why do you care?" Tilda asked him with a sneer.

"These people are living in squalor!" Jamie cried. "And you keep ‘em there so you can control ‘em. They'll be worse off if you have complete control. I know it."

Her fingers twitched like she wanted to strike him again. The queen motioned to Jamie. “Lock him up. We’ll interrogate him later for the location of this treasure.” The guard who held him nodded as he secured Jamie’s hands more firmly behind his back.

“And you, Ms. Vaswani, are gonna be very useful to me.” Tilda turned her attention on the young woman, eyeing Satya up and down. “We’ll soon put you to work improving our fortifications.”

“I will not cooperate,” Satya said simply, head held high.   
The queen expelled an exaggerated sigh. “Well in that case, you’re no use to me at all. Kill them,” she said to her guards as she motioned towards Jamie’s friends. Her guards immediately reached for Satya and raised their weapons.

“No!” Jamie was trying to twist out of the guard’s grip. “Don’t fucking touch her!” Jamie was thrashing about so violently, another guard had to rush over to help restrain him. He brought the butt of his gun down hard on the back of Jamie’s head who went limp. Satya screamed as she watched Jamie collapse. There was a flurry of action and shouting as Satya’s teammates struggled and called out to him.

“Don’t hurt him!” she begged. “I won’t help you if you hurt him!”

A look of understanding passed over the queen’s face as she looked between Jamie and Satya. “Wait… are you two…?”

“If you hurt my friends, I will not cooperate,” Satya reiterated, a dark look on her face.

Tilda grinned like Satya had said exactly what she hoped to hear her say. “Then we have an understanding, Ms. Vaswani? You help me, and no harm will come to ya little boyfriend.”

Satya was seething as she glared daggers at the woman before her. Tilda seemed unfazed. “I’ve had enough for one day,” she said with a dramatic sigh. “Take them away,” she added in a bored tone. The guards jerked them roughly towards the door. Jamie who was almost passed out, had to be dragged out with each arm slung over the shoulders of two guards. Satya caught a glimpse of Lena’s face who looked utterly devastated at their failure.

“Oh, and Jamison?” the queen called before they could all be pulled through the doorway. She was leaning casually against the side table, ankles crossed. “It was _so good_ to see you again.”

The last thing they heard as they were marched out of the room and down the hallway was the queen’s low, triumphant laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Its not been officially confirmed yet whether Symmetra has a prosthesis or just a gauntlet that covers her real arm. For the purpose of this story, I've gone with the gauntlet but let the record show I also think a bionic arm would be super-special-awesome. No emails please.


	7. Chapter 7

They were marched down endless corridors and flights of stairs. Satya could barely see anything, her attention focused on the floor in front of her as she walked. Her captors kept her arms gripped so firmly behind her and in such an awkward position that she had to bend slightly so that the experience would be less painful.

Deeper and deeper they descended into the old factory until Satya was sure they must be somewhere underground. The guards finally stopped in front of a large door and waited while Mick took out his keys and unlocked it. Satya and her teammates were pushed inside unceremoniously. Jamie, without support, crumpled to the floor with a groan and was still.

“Oi, take that one’s arm thing-o,” Mick said, motioning to Satya.

Satya removed her gauntlet with dignity before anyone could reach for her and handed it to Mick. “Do not break it,” she warned him. Mick said nothing and took the device.

“Ay, should we take his arm and leg too?” one of the guards said and nudged at Jamie’s peg leg with a booted toe.

“Don’t be a dick,” Mick groused. “Leave the poor bloke alone.” He marched over to the door. “Alright, clear out. That’s enough for one night,” he told the other guards and they all stepped out of the room.

Satya glared as Mick’s face disappeared behind the closing door. There was a jangling of keys and the sound of the lock clicking into place. The footsteps retreated up the hallway and they were left in silence. 

As soon at the guards were gone, Satya fell on Jamie’s prone form. “Are you alright?” she asked. Her fingers were cupping his face to angle it towards hers. She studied his face and head for signs of blood or injuries. There was still blood on his chin from being struck but there seemed to be little other evidence of injury.

He pulled in a breath and tried to focus his eyes. “Satya… you alright, love?” His hand sought hers.

“Yes, yes. I’m fine,” she was beside herself with worry.

“Christ, I thought they was gonna…”

“You were hit on the head,” she interrupted him. Her tone was desperate. “Try not to move.” She realised that Lúcio was beside her. “Can you do anything?” she asked, looking up at him.

Lúcio shook his head. “Not without my gear.” He crouched beside Satya and gave Jamie as once over. “Looks like a concussion. He can hold a conversation which is a good sign. He should try not to move and get some rest.”

She nodded. “I’m sorry, Jamie,” Satya said, turning back to him. She stroked his hair out of his face. “If I hadn’t had said that, they wouldn’t have hurt you.”

“Don’t be sorry,” he slurred. “I’m the one who should be sorry. I got us into this whole big mess.”

“We’ll think of a way out,” she reassured him, at the same time cursing herself internally for not bringing any teleporter pads with her on this mission so they could escape. She hadn’t wanted to be weighed down by ‘unnecessary’ equipment at the outset of their mission. She supposed a teleporter pad wouldn’t do much good anyway without her gauntlet to activate it.

With care, Satya peeled off Jamie’s hoodie and folded it so she could push it under his head like a pillow. She looked around. The square room in which they found themselves was small—about four or five metres across—and the walls were made of metal sheeting. The room was sparse; no beds, no windows, nothing. A single dim lightbulb lit the room from above. The large metal door was also windowless with only a metal grate towards the bottom to allow air ventilation. All the same, the room was musty and dark.

“I don’t feel well,” Hana announced and sat down on the cold, hard floor. She buried her face in her arms and sat there unmoving. Lúcio took a seat beside her.

Lena started pacing the room. “I’m gonna kill that Jack Morrison with my bare hands!” she muttered under the breath. “Sending us in here on half-baked intel with an inexperienced, ill-equipped team. I can’t believe we just walked in here like we thought it was going to be a walk in the park. And what do you know? We get our arses kicked by a bunch of bogans!” Her voiced had increased in volume the irater she became. “No offense, Jamie,” she added.

“None taken,” Jamie groaned.

"They let you keep the chronal accelerator,” Mei pointed out to Lena. “Can you use a pulse bomb on the door and blast us out of here?"

"Oh, sure, love! If you don't mind being exploded instantly to bits," Lena griped back at her. She was glaring at their confines with distaste. "There's nowhere near enough space in here to let one off safely. There's not even anything we can build a blast shield out of."

Lena considered briefly the option of taking the chronal accelerator off entirely and allowing herself to disappear. She was reasonably confident she would re-appear eventually, she just didn't know when or where; it could be weeks or months, and by then anything could have happened. It was dangerous and not really an option of any use to her teammates in the current situation. They needed to get out of this room  _now_.  

“Where exactly are we?” Satya asked Jamie.

“I think it’s the clink. I used to spend a night or two here after getting into fights at the pub,” Jamie replied.  Satya looked around again. It didn’t look like any kind of jail she could imagine, but rather an appropriated storeroom to serve as a prison.

“What are we going to do?” Mei’s voice was quiet and miserable.

Lena paused to think. “We were supposed to check in with the team back at the dropship at eleven p.m. at the latest. When we don’t make our scheduled contact, they’ll assume something has gone wrong and come for us.”

“How will they find us all the way down here? We don’t have our beacons,” Lúcio asked. There was a clear tone of dejection in his voice which contrasted with his usually cheery mood.

“And I doubt they’ll be able to blast their way in without resistance from the locals,” Satya added. “They’re wary enough of outsiders as it is.”

“Maybe they’ll wait for back-up from the military?” Mei asked hopefully.

“That’s another favour they’d have to call in,” Satya pondered. “If they do, it will take time. Perhaps weeks. By then, the queen could have improved fortifications, making it difficult for them to rescue us.”

Mei’s shoulders slumped. “Or maybe they’ll call in more Overwatch agents to help?”

“That will take more time too,” Lúcio observed. “They’re all back in Gibraltar.”

“Then let’s bust out of here ourselves!” Jamie said suddenly. He had been lying spread-eagled on the floor with his good arm slung over his eyes to block out the light, but sat up with a jolt of excitement as the thought occurred to him. He suddenly looked ill, like the motion had caused him to feel unwell, and lay back down slowly. “When I feel a bit better that is…”

Lena was trying to formulate a plan. She tapped her chin thoughtfully. “If we could just get Hana to an open area, she could call down a mech.”

Everyone looked at Hana who didn’t move or speak. She was still hunched over and sitting on the floor, face hidden.

“But we’d need to get our equipment and her beacon back to do that,” Mei pointed out.

“We’re buggered,” Jamie muttered, arm once more slung over his eyes.

Lena watched him with concern. “Jamie, you said you had been in this room before. Do you know of any way out?”

He lowered his arm and sat up a bit. He looked like he was wracking his brain for any sign or clue for a way out, but finding none, shrugged and said, “Nup. Can’t think of one. Usually you just have to wait for someone to let you out.”

Everyone’s shoulders sagged with defeat. Lena looked at her team; they were clearly tired and worse for wear. None of them had showered in the last couple of days. It had been a long day and they were all feeling decidedly low and exhausted. “Let’s try and get some rest,” she said. “And we’ll try to think of something in the morning.”

“Er, where are we supposed to rest?” Lúcio asked, looking around.

Lena also cast her eyes around and realised their amenities were virtually non-existent. “We’ll make do,” she said with determination. She took a seat by a wall and leaned back. Mei shuffled over and they leaned against each other. It was as close to comfortable as anyone was going to get.

Lúcio turned and watched Hana who was still seated beside him. She had said nothing in the last few minutes, face still hidden in her arms. “You okay?” he asked.

She didn’t move or speak but there was a subtle shake of her head. Instinctively, he put an arm around her and she leaned in without needing to be prompted. She rested her head on his shoulder, revealing her face to him. Her eyes were wet.

“This is not the best vacation I’ve ever had,” Hana told him quietly. It was a weak attempt at humour.

He giggled all the same. “When we get out of here, how about I make it up to you? We can go anywhere you want,” he said. It was comfortable enough leaning against each other so Lúcio leaned back against the wall, pulling her with him, so they could try and get some rest.

“Hmmm, a vacation with my favourite person? Careful, I might hold you to that,” she replied with a grin. She nestled against him, head resting on his chest.

Lúcio smiled back but he felt a distinctly cold chill shoot through him at her words. _…favourite person…_ He longed to ask her what she meant by that but he could see she was exhausted and she was almost asleep as it was. Hana’s eyes drifted closed and she put her arms around Lúcio’s waist instinctively. He froze again. “G’night,” was all she said and then was silent.

He watched her for some time, afraid to move lest he wake her, and eventually let himself drift off to sleep, trying to think about anything other than the cold metal floor he could feel beneath them and focussing instead on the way it felt to hold Hana in his arms.

 

\--

 

It was morning when Kat pulled the dirt bike up to the front gates of Junkertown. Bluey was bounding about and sniffing at all he could in his excitement. She was covered in red dust, tired and itching to take a shower. She didn’t mind sleeping outdoors but it was much preferable to get a good night’s rest in her own bed. She was so relieved that her shift was finally over. It was good to be home.

She dismounted and walked the dirt bike the last few metres to the main gate. The air was cool and the sky was still a faint pink colour. In the distance, she could hear the warbling morning calls of magpies.

Junkertown’s fortified walls loomed over her, green and rusted in places, with dwellings built into the sides towards the top. The town had been built inside the shell of the old omnic factory and had been fortified against local insurgents during the Omnic Crisis. The outer walls were tall and made of thick metal to repel attacks. Exhaust pipes twisted their way up the sides. It was partially dilapidated and dismantled in places which always made Kat smirk because you couldn’t keep a good scrapper down. The town had grown over the years and was more of a dense city now with inhabitants living in closely packed housing, constantly building more dwellings on top of one another.

She continued her approach towards the main gate. The enormous gears that lowered and raised the gate glinted in the morning light.

“G’day, Kat,” a voice called from high above.

“Hiya,” she called back and the huge chain-operated metal gate started to sink into the earth below with a loud cranking noise. Soon she could see the familiar insides of Junkertown. Kat spotted the usual sight of the white painted Queen’s decree on the wall opposite the main entrance.

She pushed her dirt bike the rest of the way through the gate and stepped into the cool shade of the inner walls. Bluey trotted along beside her.

“All’s well out there?” the gate keeper said as he approached. He was an older man, thin and grizzled, but friendly to all who passed through the main gate.

“Yeah, no worries,” Kat smiled. “Anything… er… going on around here?” She hadn’t heard any news of the radio of Jamie and his friends and she had been too afraid to ask. She didn’t even know if they had made it into Junkertown or not.

“Same old, same old,” the man said and helped her push the heavy bike over to a holding bay.

Kat was about to say her thanks when they were approached by two men. They had shotguns resting in the crooks of their elbows. Kat recognised them instantly as the queen’s guards.

“Katherine Cunningham?” one of them asked.

She nodded. A feeling of dread was beginning to pool in her stomach.

“Queen wants to see you,” the other said.

“The queen?” Kat’s breath quickened. She tried to school her face into a calm look of mild surprise. “Why would she--?”

“Now,” the same guard said as though there was no room for discussion. Bluey emitted a small whine from his position at Kat’s feet.

The gate operator was eying the men and their shotguns with confusion. “Oi, what’s all this about?” he asked.

“Never you mind,” they growled at him.

Kat tried to stay calm. “Okay, let me just go get cleaned up first and get changed,” she said.

“No, now,” the guard said more forcefully. “We’re supposed to take you there right now.” They were watching her closely.

Kat nodded and the two men took up positions on either side so they could march her the rest of the way to the Scrapyard. Kat turned to call over her shoulder, “Bluey, stay here boy!”

The gate operator looked on in bewilderment. He leaned down to scratch Bluey behind the ears, and turned to get back to work. Bluey watched Kat go with a whimper.

 

\--

 

Jamie had slept rough before so sleeping on the cold metal of their jail cell floor was not exactly welcoming, but it wasn’t altogether unfamiliar either. When he woke, Satya was tucked in to the crook of his good arm, one of her arms slung around his middle. He was aware of her affinity for cleanliness but he supposed she must have made peace with sleeping next to him despite both of them being filthy from their travels the previous two days. It was better than sleeping on the cold ground alone.

The room around him was unchanged and because there were no windows, there was no way to know how much time had passed. Everyone still looked exhausted and like they hadn’t had much sleep. He stayed still and waited for Satya to wake up.

After some time, there were footsteps in the hallway. Those who were asleep jerked awake. Looking at each other with alarm, they all stood and waited. The jangling of keys could be heard again and the door swung open. Mick entered with another guard. The guard raised a shotgun to aim it at the cell’s occupants.

“You two, with me,” Mick motioned to Jamie and Satya. “The rest of you, over there by that wall.”

Jamie and Satya stayed still while the rest of the team moved away as instructed. “Hands behind yer back,” Mick said to Jamie and Satya, and they obeyed. He bound Jamie's hands behind his back while the guard kept his weapon raised and ready for any trouble. Satya, having given up her prosthesis, had nothing for Mick to bind her other hand to, so he let her be.

When Mick was done, Jamie turned to say with a heavy dose of sarcasm, “Thanks, _mate._ ” There was no mistaking the fierce look of pure hatred in Jamie’s eyes. Mick paused momentarily to return Jamie’s gaze, but his expression remained blank.

“This way,” Mick grunted and pushed Jamie and Satya towards the door. The rest of the team watched them go. Once they were outside, Mick swung the door closed behind him and locked it again.

Jamie and Satya were marched once again down endless corridors. They climbed flights of stairs in silence until finally they emerged through heavy set of doors into an open space. Jamie recognised the dirty factory floor of the Scrapyard immediately. He took his first breath of fresh air since bring taken prisoner and squinted against the sunlight that poured in from above. It was early morning, he noted.

The arena was empty except for a small group of people standing not too far away, towards where the queen’s throne sat at the other end of the arena. Mick urged them forward towards the gathering.

As they approached, Jamie saw the queen sat regally on her throne. She wore her full battle gear which stood in contrast to his memory of her last night dressed in her pajamas. One leg crossed over the other, her spear resting against the throne at her side, she regarded them with cold amusement as they approached.

“Finally,” Tilda said impatiently. She turned to her guards. “Bring her in now.”

Two guards left and disappeared around a corner. Jamie and Satya exchanged glances. All was silent for some time while the guards fidgeted impatiently and Tilda ignored the two prisoners, instead choosing to examine her long painted fingernails.

Jamie summoned some courage and spoke. “Listen, if you let the rest of my team go, you can have anything you want. Money, the treasure, whatever…”

The queen regarded him with a look of boredom. “We’ll get down to negotiations later, _junkrat_ ,” she spat the word at him like an insult. “But yer little friends’ll be goin’ nowhere.”

“I can pay, ya know? I’ve got plenty…”

“And I already have plenty of gold,” she said with a roll of her eyes, interrupting him. “I don’t care if you pay your taxes or not anymore. I’m only interested in getting _my_ treasure back now,” she said with emphasis.

The guards reappeared with two more in tow and between them it appeared someone smaller was being marched along. Jamie realised it was Kat with a pang of fear. He shot a look of concern at Satya beside him, who looked equally alarmed.

As Kat approached, she made eye contact with Jamie. She almost halted in her steps she was so surprised to see him and Satya captive before the queen. She became pale and started to tremble before a guard nudged her forward again. The guards marched her right up to stand in front of the throne.

Tilda looked down at the frightened girl. “Katherine, isn’t it?” she asked in a way that seemed she had little patience.

“Yes, your majesty,” Kat replied hurriedly.

“You were on scout duty that last few days weren’t you?”

Kat looked fearful. “Ye… yes.”

“Did you see anything unusual on your shift?”

Jamie was staring at Kat. She could see him out of the corner of her eye, but she didn’t move or acknowledge him in any way. “No,” she said quietly.

“How strange,” Tilda said flatly. Nothing in her voice indicated that she actually thought it was strange. “Because while you were away, a band of outsiders infiltrated Junkertown through a supply shipment.” The queen’s voice was dangerously low. She rose from her seat as she spoke. “A shipment that fell under your duty of care to supervise as it crossed our land.”

Kat said nothing. She was staring back at the queen with wide-eyed fear.

“So how do you reckon these outsiders were able to board the shipment without you knowin’?” Tilda came to stand in front of Kat with a look of consternation. She motioned Jamie and Satya.

Kat’s gaze shifted to the ground in front of her. Finally, she said almost inaudibly, “I dunno…”

The queen considered her for some time. “You must not be a very good scout,” she mused aloud. “So, you’ll need to find some other job. I can’t count on a scout that makes sloppy mistakes.”

With her eyes downcast, Kat nodded in quiet acceptance but Jamie could see that her face was flushed and she was almost in tears.

“You used to be a junkrat, didn’t ya, Katherine?” Tilda asked her with a smirk. Kat nodded again. One of the guards snickered. “It was difficult for someone of your… position to move up to scout duty, wasn’t it?” The queen looked like she was really enjoying Kat’s sorrow.

Kat remained still, her eyes downcast.  

“Get outta here,” Tilda barked at Kat suddenly and turned to ascend to her throne again.

Kat turned to go. Jamie expelled a breath he didn’t realise he was holding. He was relieved to know Kat wouldn’t be reprimanded any further other than losing her job. If they knew Kat had actively helped him, she would have been in even worse trouble.

“Hang on a tick,” the queen commanded and Kat halted in her steps. Tilda tapped her chin thoughtfully, then a grin split her face in half. “You two know each other, don’t ya?” She motioned between Jamie and Kat, eyes brightening.

Kat looked alarmed. Her eyes darted over to Jamie and Satya and back to the queen.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Tilda continued. “You two were little junkrats together, weren’t ya? Running around my streets and causing all sorts of mayhem…” Tilda stood and drew close once again to Kat. “How strange that on the day Jamison Fawkes sneaks back into Junkertown, you’re on scout duty, Katherine.”

Tilda returned to stand right in front of Kat, who avoided her gaze. Tilda watched her closely. “It was no coincidence, was it, Katherine?” she asked quietly.

Kat was shaking now but she raised her head to look at the queen. Tilda regarded her coldly. Too afraid to do much else, Kat simply shook her head.

“I’m disappointed,” Tilda said, watching Kat’s face. “You betrayed us all for a bunch of outsiders. But what should I have expected from a junkrat like you?”

Kat took a deep breath and said nothing. The queen turned to walk back to her throne. “Lock her up,” Tilda said calmly to her guards. “She’ll be punished for her treason later.”

Mick stepped forward to take Kat by the arms and bound her hands behind her back. Kat put up no resistance. He nodded to another guard and the two of them escorted Kat away.

Jamie watched Kat go with barely contained rage. He turned back to the queen with a look of disgust.

Tilda yawned into her palm. “We should be going,” she said aloud to no one in particular. She motioned to Satya. “Bring her. The rest of you, take Fawkes to the Scrapyard and wait there.” The guards scurried about to follow the queen’s orders.

“What are you going to do to Kat?” Jamie demanded through grit teeth.

The queen ignored him. Two guards came forward to take hold of Satya and pull her away. Satya cast her eyes around wildly for some way to escape and, seeing none, looked to Jamie in alarm. “Jamie!”

“Leave her alone!” Jamie was swearing and throwing abuse in all directions as the guards pulled him in the opposite direction. He watched as a few guards escorted Satya through a door to the right of the throne room with the Queen leading the way in front. Satya was leaning back, trying to keep her eyes on his. He struggled, but Satya was soon obscured from his view. He tried to wrench free of his bonds but there was nothing that could be done.

“Cut it out or we’ll put you down,” a guard pushed him along and made his point by aiming the barrel of his shotgun at Jamie’s head.

They marched Jamie towards the rear of the Scrapyard, within viewing distance of the throne room. With his arms bound awkwardly behind him, and with Satya held hostage, Jamie knew he had little hope of escape. He was trying to calm his racing mind so he could at least try to think of _some_ way to get free when there was sudden movement to his left.

Something small darted out from one of the observation rooms at the side of the arena. It was a small boy running full tilt towards Jamie. The child moved too fast for anyone to react and soon collided with Jamie’s legs, almost making him double over. "Hey mista you got any more o' them lollies?" the boy laughed and pawed at Jamie's pockets. 

It all happened so fast, the guards could barely register what was happening. In the confusion, two more children darted forward to join their friend. They pulled eagerly at Jamie's clothing asking for lollies.

"Clear off!" the guards shouted at the children. "You kids are not s'posed to be in 'ere!"

Jamie stared back at the children in bewilderment. The guards made shooing motions and the kids laughed as they took off running again, disappearing around a corner. 

"Bloody junkrats!" someone swore. "Ya can't get rid o' them!"

Jamie watched them go. The guards urged him onwards again and as he walked he felt something digging into his hip. Looking down, he noticed his pocket was bulging. Something had been slipped in during the chaos. 

They drew closer to their destination at the far side of the arena. Suddenly the men stopped and ordered Jamie to drop to his knees. He did so, disturbing the red earth that had gathered in the Scrapyard floor. The men took up positions around him and simply stood, waiting with their weapons trained on him. One carried a machete and paced impatiently in front of Jamie. He cast glances back towards the now-empty throne room occasionally, as though he was waiting for some kind of sign or signal. 

The man with the machete sneered at him. Jamie recognised him as one of the men the queen had initially sent after him when rumours had gone around town that he had found something valuable and didn't want to pay up.

The morning cool was evaporating quickly with the heat, and the broken glass above the Scrapyard did nothing to block the rising temperatures. Jamie said nothing. He knew it was futile to reason with these people.

Jamie kept his face expressionless and waited. It was going to be another hot day. 


	8. Chapter 8

After Jamie and Satya had been removed from the cell and Lena was sure the guards were out of earshot, she immediately started pacing again and thinking aloud.

“They must have taken Satya so they can make her use her hard-light technology,” she pondered aloud. Frantically her mind was racing over every possible fact connected to her captors that she knew, hoping somehow a possible solution to their incarceration would be revealed. “But why take Jamie? Are they going to interrogate him about his treasure so soon?”

“What’s all this about a treasure?” Lúcio asked. He made an exasperated gesture with his hands. “And why am I always the last to know anything?”

Lena turned to see her teammates were sharing looks of equal confusion and were watching Lena for a response.

“Oh, right. I guess not too many Overwatch agents know about it,” Lena said with an apologetic smile. “It was a need-to-know kind of thing. I only knew about it because I had to recruit Jamie and, well, I needed to know.”

“Know what?” Mei asked.

Lena took a deep breath. “Jamie found something quite valuable in the area surrounding Junkertown which immediately put him on various international hit-lists. A few different private organisations quietly put out bounties for his capture. Jamie had to leave Australia and recruited a bodyguard for protection; that would be Roadhog. The rest is, as they say, history!” she finished with an awkward smile, hoping they wouldn’t question her further.

Lúcio looked confused. “But why all the secrecy?”

“Yeah, and what’s this treasure?” Hana asked. She crossed her arms over her chest and fixed Lena with a look of scrutiny.

“Well, I don’t know rightly,” Lena said with a shrug. “Part of the conditions of Jamie’s contract was that we offer him protection where possible from bounty hunters, but he insisted on being tight-lipped about what the treasure actually was. I don’t think even Roadie knows the full story. We figured we’d wait and if he ever needed help, he’d ask us eventually.”

Mei, Lúcio and Hana stared back at Lena with looks of disbelief. “That story wasn’t nearly as exciting as I thought it was going to be,” Hana remarked. “It’s probably nothing. He probably made it up for attention!”

“Still,” Mei said thoughtfully. “it was enough for people to offer a reward for Jamie’s capture. If it does exist, it must be something valuable.”

“Wait, why would the queen put out an order on Jamie and Roadie to ‘shoot on sight’ if she wanted this treasure so badly?” Lúcio asked.

Lena shrugged. “I’m guessing she must have initially ordered her people to shoot them back when they were exiled but then I think she figured out what the treasure actually was, and rather than revoke the order which would make the rest of Junkertown suspicious, she left it in place while she found other ways to capture Jamie.”

“Like sending kidnappers after him…” Mei mused quietly.

Lena nodded and went on, “She must want the treasure all for herself without the people of Junkertown working out what it is.”

Mei looked up at Lena with a worried expression. “Will the queen hurt him? You said they were going to interrogate him.”

Lena thought about it for a moment. “Well, they can’t because Satya said she wouldn’t help them if they hurt Jamie. But they might try to use him as bait to make her do what they want.”

Before anyone could question her further, a small voice interrupted their conversation.

“Oi, youse tourists in there?”

All four agents jumped in alarm and stared around themselves for the source of the noise. They exchanged looks of confusion, as the owner of the voice was nowhere to be seen.

“Oi, sis’?” the small voice came again. It was a child’s voice.

Mei turned and noticed something brown poking through the grate in the door. They were fingers. Mei knelt by the door and tried to peer through the thin slats. “Hello?” she asked.

“Hey, sis. You got any more of them lollies, eh?” It was the little aboriginal boy who proclaimed to be the local junkrat leader and had run some errands for Jamie the day before.

“What are you doing here?” Mei asked in alarm. “This is a dangerous place. You should not be here.”

“S’okay,” the boy said. “We do it all the time. Junkrats go anywhere they want. We sneak in through holes no adults can get through.” He jiggled the grate experimentally. Mei helped him pull it free and finally she could see his face properly though the small square hole by ducking her head a bit. He was lying on his side so as to better see them through the gap.

“Didn’t see ya come out of the Scrapyard. Thought youse tourists might be in trouble,” the boy went on. “I followed the guards down here and waited for ‘em to go.”

“Do you know where they took our friends?” Mei asked.

He shook his head. “They was headed back up to the Scrapyard though.”

Mei nodded. “What is your name?”

“Raymond,” the boy said.

“My name is Mei,” she said with a smile. “Can you help us? We’re locked in here.”

Raymond regarded her coolly. “Depends if you got anymore o’ them lollies,” he said.

Lena who had been watching the exchange intently, suddenly looked to the others and started patting down her pockets. Jamie had distributed a few of the gobstoppers to them in case they were needed for just this purpose. They pooled together a handful of lollies and handed them to Mei. Lena couldn’t believe the livelihood of their entire mission now rested on a handful of sweets.

Mei leaned down and showed them to Raymond. He looked like she was showing him treasure. It broke Mei’s heart to think the most exciting thing to happen in this child’s life was getting a hold of a piece of confectionary. They must have been a luxury for these children out here in the middle of nowhere.

The boy reached for them through the gap in the door, but Mei pulled them away. “Can you find the key to this room for us?” she asked him.

“Mei, no! It’s too dangerous!” Lena cried. “That Mick fellow has the keys and he can’t be trusted!” The likelihood of success in sending this small boy to a full-grown man to challenge him for the keys or even try to steal them was at best improbable, at worst life-threatening for the child.

“Mick’s the really tall Sudan fella, eh?” Raymond asked. “No worries, we junkrats got light fingers.” He grinned and wiggled his fingers at Mei by way of demonstration. He rolled up into a sitting position and was off jogging down the hallway beyond the door.

“No! Raymond!” Lena tried to call him back but he was gone. She gave Mei a disapproving look. 

“What choice do we have?” Mei asked Lena. She stood and moved away from the door, tucking the lollies into a pocket for safekeeping. “We need to get out of here, don’t we? And he said junkrats can go wherever they want. He seemed unafraid.”  
“Do you have a plan?” Lúcio asked her.

Mei seemed thoughtful for a moment. She looked like she was formulating something. Finally, she turned to smile at them. “Let’s just say; we’re not on ice yet,” she said.

 

\--

 

 

Mick and another guard had walked Kat toward the stairs at the opposite end of the arena from the queen’s throne room. They were heading down the long hallway towards the holding cells below the Scrapyard. Kat walked silently between the two guards, slightly hunched, her face downcast.

“…and I wasn’t even supposed to be at work today,” the other guard was grumbling beside Mick. “Next thing I know, the missus is rollin’ me outta bed and telling me there was call out and all the guards were on-job today. And queen’s ordered a high alert too! I almost chucked a sickie but then me missus is always on me back about the finances so she says….”

Mick rolled his eyes. Any excuse for this joker to have a whinge. He was the biggest bludger Mick had ever met.

“You know what, Dan?” Mick began. “Why don’t ya go take a break? Ya clearly knackered.”

Dan didn’t need much prompting. “Cheers, Mick. I’ll take a smoke-o.” He gave Mick a short wave and headed off down the hallway in the opposite direction, his shotgun slung over one shoulder.

Mick watched until Dan disappeared around a corner and was out of sight. Finally alone with Kat, Mick started to undo her bonds. Kat tried to twist to see what he was doing.

“What’re you…?” She stopped when she saw his face. “Mick? Christ! I didn’t even realise it was you there!”

“Kat, you need to get the hell outta Junkertown,” Mick told her. “There’s something funny going on around here. You don’t wanna be here when shit hits the fan.”  
Free of her bonds, Kat turned towards him fully and rubbed at the chaffed skin of her wrists where the ropes had held her.

“This is because Jamie’s back, isn’t it?” she asked.

A look of concern passed over Mick’s face. His mouth was set in a grim line. “Something’s not right. I’ve never see the queen like this. She’s hellbent on destroying him and his mates. Every guard is on high-alert right now. It’s like she’s expectin’ an attack on Junkertown or something.”

Kat tried to process all that he was saying. She had no idea helping Jamie out with his plan to get back into Junkertown would result in all this trouble. “Is she going to try and kill him?” Kat asked.

Mick considered his answer. “I think so. Thing is, she promised this other chick… Satra?”

“Satya,” Kat supplied helpfully.

“Right.” Mick continued, “She told Satya that her mates wouldn’t be harmed, Jamie as well, so long as she ‘cooperated.’ Thing is, queen’s been acting so strange, I don’t know how likely she is to keep her word.”

Kat could barely make any sense of what Mick was saying. “What’s going on?” she asked in exasperation.

Mick’s tone took on a note of urgency. “I think the queen is going to order the mechs to attack Jamie and his mates. Maybe after she’s done making that Satya chick do whatever.”

Kat looked back at Mick in bewilderment. Jamie was in danger. She had just seen him moments ago with Satya in the Scrapyard, captive and defenceless.

“Listen, Kat,” Mick went on. “You gotta get as far away from Junkertown as you can. The queen’s got it out for you too…”

“There’s gotta be something we can do!” Kat interrupted him.

“No. You gotta get movin’, Kat.” Mick clasped her by the shoulders and try to push her in the opposite direction. She resisted him.

“Please, Mick, we gotta help him!” Her fingers fisted in his shirt in desperation.

Mick was getting frustrated at her lack of cooperation. He gripped her wrists and jerked her up to his eye level. His next words were ground out between clenched teeth, “No! Why should we stick our necks out for him? _He left us!_ ”

Kat looked him in the face and shouted back at him, “’Coz when a mate asks you for help, you're supposed to help ‘em!”

Mick stared back at her with a look of shock. He had known Kat for a few years now, saw her down the pub often enough. She was a nice girl but very quiet. He’d never even seen her get so angry before.

A calmness settled over his features and he released his hold on her slowly. She took a step back while he measured her with a calculating look. Finally, he said, “Upstairs in the queen’s chambers, all Jamie’s and his mates’ gear is in the room second on the left as you go in.” He took his keys from his belt and removed a small, silver one for her. “Take this, but you’ll need to find your own way. See if you can get a hold of their stuff and bring it to the Scrapyard. I think things are about to get ugly there.”

“What about you?”

“I’m s’posed to be on duty,” he replied. “I gotta get back before anyone suspects anything.” She nodded and turned to hurry off, the small silver key clutched to her chest. “Make sure you’re not seen!” he called after her.

He watched as she headed off down the hallway. She was almost out of sight when he remembered something. “Kat!” She stopped and turned to look at him.

“There’s this weird robot thing on the couch too.” He dug in his pocket and fished out the battery pack he had taken out of the small robot the day before. He tossed it to her and she caught it easily out of the air. “Take this and see if you can get it started again.”

“A robot?”

“One of Jamie’s mates must’ve snuck it in.”

Kat looked a little worried but nodded all the same. She turned and disappeared around a corner.

There was a knot of fear in Mick’s stomach as he watched her go. He knew something bad was going to happen today. He just hoped Kat could get to Jamie before it was too late.

 

\--

 

Satya was standing at the highest point in Junkertown, an exterior observation deck above the Scrapyard. It was mid-morning and even now the heat of the sun was bearing down on her. Before her, the red sands of the Outback stretched on endlessly, dotted here and there with patches of scrub. In the heat’s distortion, she could just make out the West MacDonnell National Park in the distance where the dropship lay waiting. A gust of hot wind whipped her hair to the side but offered no relief from the heat.

Immediately surrounding the Scrapyard were the makeshift houses that formed Junkertown. Painted crudely in an odd assortment of colours, the dwellings were stacked atop one another and roughly formed from corrugated iron or any kind of scrap their builders could find. _They couldn’t possibly be up to any kind of safety code_ , Satya mused to herself. The streets twisted and twined chaotically together without any sense of order that Satya could discern. Her inner architect was actually itching to make improvements to the living conditions here, but she wouldn’t let the queen know that.

“Impressive, isn’t it?”

It was the queen standing beside her. She had marched Satya up here with the intent of showing off her city to the renowned architect. She stood with spear in hand looking very proud of herself.

“It’s certainly… something,” Satya offered. She rubbed at her arm stub, missing the comforting presence of her prosthesis keenly. She was in no mood for small talk and pleasantries right now. She had a headache and she was feeling dehydrated.

“This place was built after the Australian Liberation Front destroyed the omnium’s fusion core,” Tilda went on. “They thought they could take our land and give it to the omnics. But we won the war; now we reap the spoils.”

“I thought this land belonged to the Arrernte people?” Satya asked. She kept her tone innocent but noticed her jibe had struck a chord in the queen. Tilda’s face twinged with a look of distaste.

“Maybe once,” Tilda ground out. “But their ‘ _Dreamtime’_ is over and it’s time they woke up. We built this city from ashes. It belongs to us now.”

With every word that spilled out of the queen’s mouth, Satya became even more disgusted with her. “Is it even safe to be here?” Satya asked, keeping her tone polite. “I was told there is lingering radiation in the area.”

Tilda shrugged with a complete lack of concern. “The strong can survive it. The weaklings die out,” was all she offered as explanation.

“How barbaric,” Satya stated simply, a dark expression on her face. She kept her gaze trained on the wastelands before her.

“Welcome to the apocalypse,” Tilda said with a smirk. She turned to leave and indicated that Satya should follow her.

They moved to the opposite end of the viewing platform, one from which the queen could show Satya a better view of the walls which fortified the city.

“Someone bring her arm,” Tilda barked at the guards who surrounded them at a distance. One left to carry out the queen’s order.

“As you can see, the city is surrounded by iron cladding,” Tilda went on. “These walls defend us from outsiders.”

Satya looked over the edge of the railing and tried to ignore the accompanying sense of vertigo. Far below, beyond the stacked housing, were the large green walls that kept the city tightly contained inside. Satya could only see the parts that rose above the houses. There were gaps here and there through which she could see the surrounding wastelands.

Satya turned back to the queen. “You mean the government?” Satya asked.

Tilda smiled benignly. “The Commonwealth gave up this land when they handed it over to the omnics. They’re none too pleased that we are in control of it now.” She turned to Satya. “I’m not an idiot. I know they’re supporting Overwatch’s presence here. They want to find a way back in.”

“What will you do if they attack?” Satya asked.

“That’s where you come in Ms. Vaswani,” Tilda replied. “See these holes in the walls? I want you to fix ‘em. I’ve heard about hard-light technology. I know you can build whole cities out of the stuff. Maybe when you’re done with the outer walls, we can get you to work on the interior buildings for us?”

Satya could not conceal her anger. “Do you intend to keep me prisoner here indefinitely? Do you even know who I am?” Satya asked, annoyed. “I work for the _Vishkar Corporation_. It’s a multi-national conglomerate. They will not sit by idly while their lead architect is captive. They will come for me, and then what will you do?” Satya had worked herself into a rage. She stood trembling with her hand fisted at her side, glaring at the queen.

“That’s not any of your concern,” Tilda growled at her. “By the time they come, my fortress will be complete. We will be ready for them.”

“And if I refuse to help?” Satya asked defiantly.

There was only the briefest moment of silence before the queen turned and said, “I was hoping you might say that.” She barely moved, but inclined her head slowly down to indicate she wanted to lure Satya’s attention in that direction.

Satya’s eyes dropped and saw the roof of the Scrapyard. She took a step closer, her hand coming to rest on the railing. There were patches of broken glass through which she could make out tiny figures standing in the arena below. They must have been several stories up, but Satya was still able to pick out a group of men standing in a loose circle. In their midst was a small figure, kneeling. _Jamie…_

“I don’t mess about, Ms Vaswani,” Tilda said, her voice low and dangerous. “You will do as you’re told. Or he will die.”

Satya’s white-knuckled grip on the railing almost faltered. She took in a shaky breath as she kept her eyes locked on the activity below. A man was pacing with a machete in hand, right in front of Jamie.

“What about your precious treasure?” Satya tried to keep her voice steady.

“Ah, yes. We’ll need to extract that first, won’t we?” Tilda mused aloud. “There’s plenty of time for all of that.”

“Do you even know what it is?” Satya asked.

Tilda smiled back at her. “Do _you?_ ”

Satya bit back her response. Her relationship with Jamie was still relatively new. She hadn’t wanted to press him for answers just yet. She thought she would wait until he felt comfortable enough to tell her on his own.

“It came from the omnic fusion core. That’s all I know,” Satya said. After a pause, she added, “If you hate omnics so much, why do you want something Jamie stole from the core?”

Tilda smirked. “All that aside, let’s just say, it’s going to be a very useful bargaining chip against the Commonwealth if they decide to try and dethrone me.”

Satya was watching her closely. “You’re crazy,” Satya said quietly.

“But you understand me, don’t you, Ms. Vaswani?” Tilda replied casually. They were speaking in low tones now, too quiet for the guards nearby to hear. “I know all about you and the Vishkar Corporation…” She adopted a relaxed pose, seeming to find the tip of her spear suddenly very interesting. Satya sneered back at her.

“We’re the same, you and me,” Tilda went on. “Just two women who know how to shape the world to our liking…” Tilda leaned against the railing languidly and looked out over the city below. Satya watched the queen carefully. “These people would be dead without me. They would be lost in the chaos and destruction of the wastelands. I control them and this city. Without the order I created here, where else would they go?” She looked Satya right in the eye. “Just like you did in Rio.”

Satya was struck by the queen’s words. Her body went rigid as she tried to digest what Tilda had said.

“That’s not… I didn’t…” Satya struggled to organise her thoughts. She thought back to Rio de Janeiro. She had been told at the time that the Vishkar development would improve the local peoples’ lives, that she was restoring order and civility to them. “I was trying… to make the world a better place…”

“As am I, dear-y!” Tilda smiled at her. “But it wasn’t just order that you wanted, was it? You wanted _control._ ”

Satya took a shaky breath. At the time, she had believed the controls that Vishkar had implemented would help improve living conditions in Rio. It wasn’t until afterwards that she learned of the intention to exploit the locals as a cheap labour force, that sonic technology would be used to torture and govern them, that Sanjay intended to raze large portions of the old favelas to the ground.

 _Calm down_ , she told herself. Her mind was racing. _Lúcio forgave you, remember? You didn’t know. You didn’t know. I swear, I didn’t know!_

“These people were lost before they made their way to Junkertown,” Tilda nodded down at the city. “I took them in, I gave them a home. Here they are safe from bandits and the dangers of the wastes. Their lives are structured. In return, they do my bidding.” She met Satya’s gaze. “There are few in this world who can command leadership like you and me. It takes someone who is willing to make the tough decisions, to create order.”

Satya took a steadying breath.

“No,” Satya said firmly. “I’m not like you. These people live in a prison. You tell them what to do and when to do it. You decide who stays and who goes. You enforce laws that indenture people to you, and offer little in return.” Satya turned to look the queen in the eye. “They deserve to be free from your cruelty.”

Tilda was quiet for some time. She surveyed the city below, people going about their business completely unaware they were being watched from above. “Shame,” she said and shifted so she was standing up straight once again.

At that moment, the guard returned with Satya’s gauntlet. Satya noted with disdain that he had left grubby fingerprints on it. He offered it to her and she refitted the device with care.

“No funny business, Ms. Vaswani,” Tilda reminded her. “Wouldn’t want anything to happen to ya boyfriend.” The guards all lifted their weapons in readiness.

Satya grimaced at the men surrounding her. Tilda maintained her smug look. “Follow me,” she said. “I want to test that arm of yours on something before we start on the outer walls.” Tilda nodded to a guard and turned to swagger away. The men escorted Satya, following the queen back towards the stairs that lead down from the observation area.

 

 

\--

 

It hadn’t taken long for Kat to find her way to the Queen’s living quarters. Kat had a general idea of which way to go and she knew it was somewhere up high, so she had just kept following staircases up and up. The furnishings became fancier as she went so she knew she was headed in the right direction. There were no guards around to worry her; it seemed most of them had been sent down to the Scrapyard for some reason. Finding a large door with a silver lock that seemed about right, she let herself in using the key Mick had given her and found herself standing in a long hallway. She located the door second on the left where Mick had said the weapons would be.

Kat reached for the door handle to the queen’s private suite with caution, not sure if she should expect to see the queen waiting for her on the other side. It was impossible, she knew, because she had just seen the queen down in the Scrapyard and it would be unlikely that she would get here before Kat could. Still, Kat was running on pure adrenalin at this point and her mind was racing with terrifying scenarios. The fear of being captured was making her insides feel cold. 

The latch turned and released with a click. Pushing the door open gingerly, Kat peered inside. At the opposite side of the room, thin curtains were drawn over a large window. A beautiful and elaborate chandelier was hanging from the ceiling overhead and glinting in the dim light. Kat hadn’t seen anything like it before. It was all made of the same illuminated blue material and shone like coloured glass.

At the centre of the room were a few couches and a coffee table. Sprawled haphazardly over the table were an assortment of items Kat struggled to identify, some of which looked like weapons. She assumed they must belong to Jamie and his friends.

Glancing about, Kat noted all was silent and she was the room's only occupant. She crept closer to the coffee table. How was she going to get all this stuff down to the Scrapyard? 

Kneeling down, Kat grabbed a backpack and upended it, letting rations and camping supplies tumble out. She then started cramming anything that looked important into the empty backpack; a satchel full of concussion mines, five pistols—or variations thereof—and a bunch of what looked like wrist watches among other things. She didn’t stop to think, she had to hurry. One of the larger items, a frag launcher, she decided she would carry by hand. Making sure she had everything of importance, she shouldered the pack and turned to go when something caught her eye.

The dim light from the window was refracting off something smooth and metal on the couch nearby. Kat started when she saw a small robotic device laying there. This must have been the robot Mick was talking about. She hadn’t expected it to be so small.

She drew near and reached out to poke at it experimentally. It didn't move. Kat examined the device closely. It was too small to do any real harm surely? It was no bigger than a toaster. Mick had said that she should try to reactivate it.

Pulling the battery Mick had given her from her pocket, Kat lifted the robot into her arms and tried to find where it should be inserted. She didn't know much about robots—they weren't allowed in Junkertown—but she had heard enough about them and seen things in movies often enough to understand the basics. There was a space in the bottom where the battery could be clipped in. With trepidation, she slotted it into place and waited. 

There was a series of chimes which sounded like start-up music to Kat and suddenly the small robot shuddered into life. Kat hadn't been expecting the sudden vibration in her hands and tossed the thing away with a cry of alarm, scrambling backwards until she bumped into a couch. The robot immediately righted itself mid-flight and turned to look at her. It looked her up and down, then looked around the room, then back to Kat. It made a small questioning noise. Kat held herself as still as possible, watching for any sudden movements from the robot as if it might try to attack her. 

The robot had a glowing display on its front where two animated eyes were displayed. It looked around the room again and seeming to not be able to find what it was looking for, made the same questioning noise. 

Kat was confused. It wasn't trying to kill her at all. Everything she had ever been told about artificial intelligence was that they were dangerous and wanted to kill humans. This robot was kind of cute actually. 

"You don't look like you could hurt a fly," Kat commented. The robot drew closer with a low humming noise. "Whats yer name?" Kat asked. 

The robot regarded her briefly then, in response, the display screen flashed with an image of falling snow.

"Snow...?" she asked. 

The display changed again, this time to a bouncing beach-ball. 

"Ball?" Kat was confused, then realised, "Oh, _Snow_ - _ball!_ Your name is Snowball."

Snowball's eyes appeared on the display screen again. They seemed to crinkle with delight and Snowball zipped around the room happily. He started sprinkling snowflakes on Kat’s head.

Kat laughed and tried to catch them. Once she had a handful, she brought it close to examine. “I’ve never seen snow before,” she remarked. Snowball made a noise of amusement which got Kat giggling again. He reminded her of Bluey when he was just a puppy. “You’re so cute! I'm Kat," she said. 

Snowball returned to hover directly in front of her. He displayed some Chinese characters on his screen, none of which Kat could understand. An English translation followed: " _Mei?"_

That was one of Jamie's friends wasn't it? "Mei? You belong to Mei?" Kat asked. Snowball made an affirmative noise. 

"How come I never seen you before?" Kat wondered aloud. She had spent the night with the Overwatch agents and not once had Snowball shown himself nor had she been told about him. Had Mei kept the robot concealed? Maybe they didn't trust her enough to reveal Snowball to her...

"Mei's not here, mate. Can you—I dunno—scan for her or something?"

Snowball paused and after a series of beeps, shook his 'head' to indicate he couldn't find her. 

Kat frowned. "That's okay. Come on. You can help me get this stuff downstairs. Then we'll go looking for Mei, okay?" She stood and shouldered the backpack once again. Snowball zipped excitedly behind her and together they made their way out of the room. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: The queen makes a reference to aboriginal Dreamtime in this chapter. The Dreamtime is the Aboriginal understanding of the world, of it's creation, and it's great stories. This kind of resonates in a line from the Junkertown trailer where the queen says, “Your past lives are a dream. It's time you woke up.” I wanted to draw a parallel with this line and the existence of aboriginal Dreamtime. It is exceedingly cruel for the queen to say “their Dreamtime is over and it’s time they woke up. We built this city from the ashes. It belongs to us now” after the history of colonialism and stolen land in Australia and the damage it has caused for indigenous Australians.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry its been a while. Internet was down at my house for about 2 weeks there.

Kat and Snowball were making their way as quietly as possible down yet another hallway, trying to find a set of stairs that might lead them down to the Scrapyard. Their progress was slowed slightly by the loaded backpack on Kat’s shoulders and the heavy frag launcher in her arms. It also didn’t help that each corridor looked just a void and endless as the last, making it difficult to track their progress. Kat had never been allowed into this part of Junkertown before so wandering these old hallways was a new experiencew. The twisted innards of the old omnium had not been built in any decipherable way that made it easy to traverse, Kat mused internally.

Kat paused as they came to a junction, unsure if she should turn left or right. “Um… I don’t remember coming this way before when I was comin’ up from the Scrapyard...” she remarked to herself. Snowball floated beside her, watching closely. He trilled quietly with a tone of concern.

There was no natural light here in the hallway, only a dim lightbulb lit the way from above. The path they had taken had barely any windows or points of reference she could use to orientate herself. She cast her eyes around for a clue for which way to go. Why wasn’t this place better signposted?

“Hang on a tick….” Kat said with growing realisation. She turned and took in fully the hallway they had just come down. Unfortunately, it looked like dozens of others they had passed through that day. Snowball continued to watch her inquisitively. After a moment of consideration, Kat turned to look at Snowball. “If I didn’t come this way before, then that means…” Her faced dropped. “We must have gone the wrong way.”

Snowball displayed some more text on his screen. _Lost?_ it read.

Kat nodded affirmatively. She shifted the heavy backpack into a more comfortable position. With a sigh, she tried to think what would be the best way to go to get back to the Scrapyard. Snowball chirped encouragingly beside her. Just then, her thoughts were interrupted by the soft thud of footsteps coming from the corridor up ahead that led to the left.

Kat swore and looked around for a doorway or something to hide behind but the hallway was hopelessly empty. They were about to be caught, she realised. Looking up, Kat noticed Snowball was watching her behaviour with confusion and she plucked him out of the air with one hand so she could tuck him behind her back. Whoever was about to come around the corner and catch sight of them would probably be alarmed to see a robot in Junkertown.

Keeping her eyes trained on the end of the hallway, Kat backed away as silently as she could. She gripped the frag launcher tightly in her hands and aimed it towards the source of the footsteps. In reality, she had no idea how to use it, but she hoped she could scare off anyone who tried to confront her by brandishing it about a bit.

Suddenly there was movement, and a small figure appeared at the end of the hallway.

It was a boy, Kat realised and stopped moving. The boy caught sight of her at the same time and froze as though he’d been discovered doing something wrong. His eyes wide with alarm, he turned to scurry away.

“Wait!” Kat called, releasing Snowball. She lowered the frag launcher and hurried over to the corner she had seen the boy disappear around. “I know you, don’t I?”

Kat rounded the corner and found the boy had paused mid-step not far down a short hallway. He turned, half facing her, with a look of suspicion.

“It’s Raymond, isn’t it?” Kat asked gently. She put the frag launcher down on the floor and held her palms up placatingly to show him she meant no harm. “I’m not gonna hurt ya, alright?”

Snowball trilled beside her, and Kat saw Raymond’s eyes switch to the small robot with confusion. “Don’t worry,” Kat said. “He won’t hurt ya either. This is Snowball.”

Raymond turned fully towards her, but still said nothing. Kat took an experimental step closer. “You’re a junkrat, right? I used to be one too,” Kat said. “My name is Kat. Can you help me find the Scrapyard? I’m a little bit lost…”

Raymond was silent for some time. He didn’t recognise her but he had run lots of errands for people in the past, perhaps he had done so for her once. Finally, he said, “Sorry, sis, I’m lookin’ for someone.”

“Oh,” Kat said, looking disappointed.

Raymond went on, “Them tourists downstairs told me to find a fella called Mick.” He jerked a thumb behind him as though to indicate the people he was speaking about were somewhere back there. “You seen him?”

 _Tourists? What did he mean?_ Kat wondered. She followed the direction he had pointed at with her eyes. All she could see just behind Raymond was that the floor fell away to a steep staircase that lead further down into the old omnium. _Could he mean Jamie’s friends? Were Jamie’s friends somewhere down there?_ Kat had heard once that there were cells for prisoners and troublemakers below the Scrapyard. Perhaps Jamie’s friends were being held there?

“No, I haven’t seen him for a while,” Kat replied. She took another hesitant step forward. “Can you take me back to the ‘tourists’?”

Raymond shook his head. “They’re locked up. Can’t go back ‘til I find a way to get ‘em out.”

Kat remembered the key in her pocket. “Maybe this will help?” Kat dug around in her pocket and fished out the silver key Mick had given her. “I think it’s a master key. It should get them out. Here.” She tossed it to him and he caught it out of the air. Raymond eyed it with confusion, like he couldn’t quite understand why she was being so nice to him.

“You can have it,” Kat said earnestly. “Look, I’ve got all their kit here.” She showed him the backpack. “I just want to give it back to them. Can you show me the way?” Snowball hummed softly beside her.

Raymond eyed her and the floating robot warily. His expression remained unconvinced.

Suddenly there was a loud noise to Kat’s right that startled the hallway’s occupants. The grate covering a nearby ventilation shaft suddenly popped free from the wall and clattered noisily to the floor. To Kat's amazement, two small boys and a girl came tumbling out of the wall cavity, laughing and falling about clumsily. The tallest boy jumped up and ran over to Raymond.

"Raymond! We did it! We gave him the...." The boy paused hesitantly when he caught sight of Kat. The other two children followed his line of sight and stopped laughing as soon as they saw her. All three hurried over to hide behind Raymond, peering out from behind him to watch Kat and Snowball with suspicion. The grate cover lay abandoned on the floor.

Raymond did not move or make a sound. He kept his attention trained on Kat and Snowball, his face unreadable. Kat looked back at the collection of children with confusion.

"It's alright...." Kat began. "We're not gonna..."

Snowball suddenly floated over to the group of children before Kat could stop him, and Raymond took a step backwards. The children shuffled closer together, watching Snowball warily. Snowball chirped happily, his ‘ear’ flaps on top of his head all aflutter with excitement. He hovered above them and started to drop snowflakes down around the small children.

All four looked on with surprise, gingerly reaching out to touch the frosty flakes with wonder, like they had never seen anything like it before. The snow fluttered down to gently land on their heads and shoulders.

Suddenly, with a burst of energy, the children leapt forward from behind Raymond so they could laugh and dance around under Snowball's falling snowflakes with pure glee. Some bent to pick up handfuls and toss the slush back up into the air.

“Snow! It’s _real_ snow!” They called to each other like it was the most remarkable sight they had ever seen. All this with the exception of Raymond who remained rigid and stiff as Snowball zipped around about their heads.

Kat watched the children’s enthusiasm and smiled. It must have been like magic to them, Kat realised, for they had never seen snow in person before, only had it described to them or perhaps they had been shown a rare picture of snowier lands. She laughed. “See? He’s friendly,” she said, gesturing to Snowball. “He belongs to one of the tourists. He just wants to find her again.”

Raymond watched his friends for a moment longer as they tried to catch the falling snowflakes in their hands. He looked back at Kat and fixed her with a calculating look. Finally, he shrugged and nodded decisively. "This way," he said.

He turned to head back towards the stairs, the kids trailing after him, still laughing and chattering to each other. Snowball beeped at Kat and also set off after Raymond. Sighing with relief, Kat adjusted the backpack on her shoulders and scooped up the frag launcher from the floor so she could hurry after them.

Meanwhile, Mei was sitting on the cold metal floor of the jail cell waiting for Raymond to return. She was sick with worry for Snowball who she assumed was still lying defencelessly on the couch in the queen’s living quarters. He had come so close to being smashed apart the night before and she had never known true terror until she saw the guard raise the butt of his gun ready to strike. For the briefest of moment, she had thought she was going to lose him, just like she had lost all her friends at Ecopoint: Antarctica. Snowball was her last living link to her past life and she would be devastated to lose him. When she got a hold of her endothermic blaster again and had rescued Snowball, she was going to turn this whole town into a raging blizzard the likes of which these people could never imagine. The queen was going to pay dearly for what she had done. 

There was a shuffling of feet on the other side of the door. Everyone in the cell tensed.   
"Oi, sis?" 

It was Raymond. Mei leapt up and rushed to the door.

"Raymond?" Mei asked, dropping to her knees so she could look through the little hole in the door where the grate had once been. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," the boy replied.

“Did you find Mick?” Mei asked. Lena came to stand beside her, listening intently.

“No,” he said and Lena’s shoulders slumped with disappointment. “But I found something else…”

There was loud series of shrill beeps and Snowball appeared at the hole in the door. He was just a little too large to fit through the gap, but he pressed himself as close as possible to Mei.

“Snowball!” Mei was beside herself with happiness. She reached through the door to take hold of him and his display lit up with two little eyes, wide and happy. “Thank goodness! Raymond, where did you find him?”

“It wasn’t me,” Raymond’s disembodied voice explained from the other side of the door.

“ _I_ found him in a room upstairs,” came a second voice.

"Kat? Is that you?" Lena asked with a tone of pleasant surprise. "What are you doing here?"

“Didn’t I tell youse lot not to come to Junkertown?” Kat’s voice had adopted a stern tone. “And now look at ya.”

“Alright, alright,” Lena grumbled, crossing her arms in a huff. “No need to rub it in.”

“Kat, do you know how to get us out of here?” Lúcio asked, looking hopefully at the door.  

“Just a sec,” she said. “Raymond, you got that key?” After a pause, there was a scraping noise and the sound of a key being inserted in the lock. The agents all looked at each other with relief. Finally, they were going to get out of here.

The lock jiggled. Kat grunted like she was struggling to turn the key. After a while, the jiggling stopped. “Um… It’s stuck,” Kat said. The agents’ faces fell, dejected.

“It’s cactus,” Raymond said flatly.

“I think it’s the wrong key,” Kat said. “Bugger. I thought it might be a master key.”

“Now what are we going to do?” Hana whined. Snowball made a low, disappointed noise on the other side of the door.

Kat looked around for inspiration. There had to be some way to open the door! Maybe if she could just find a crowbar or something, she could pry it open... She looked down at the frag launcher in her hands but she wasn’t confident she could blow up the door without harming the cell’s occupants. The same went for the concussion mines she had packed into the backpack. Even if she successfully set one off, she might ultimately hurt the Overwatch agents inside.

“Wait, I have an idea!” Mei’s voice interrupted Kat’s thoughts. “Everyone stand back!” Kat heard the shuffling of feet as the agents on the other side of the door moved away. She nodded to Raymond and they backed up the hallway a bit. Snowball watched them but stayed near the door.

When they had moved back to a safe position, Kat heard Mei say, “Alright, Snowball. Code Red: Overwatch agent in distress. You know what to do!”

Snowball assessed the door briefly, then Kat watched the robot position himself over the door handle and with a burst of concentrated ice, he froze the lock solid. Ice crystals appeared on the door and frame surrounding the lock. The door groaned in protest as the ice expanded inside the lock’s inner workings and the doorjamb, weakening the metal.

Snowball stopped suddenly and released a shrill but enthusiastic noise. Kat rushed forward and shoved her shoulder against the door, putting all her weight behind the motion. The door cracked open a notch.

“Again, Kat!” Lena cried from the other side of the door. “On three! One, two, three!”

Kat set her shoulder against the door again and pushed with all her might. Raymond set his hands against the door too and started pushing. The three other children, who had been hanging back up until this point, also hurried forward to throw what little weight they could behind the door. The door cracked open a little more, just barely wide enough to slide a hand through the gap.

“Again! One, two, _three!_ ” Lena cried, and everyone heaved with all their might. The children giggled like it was all a game.

The lock snapped suddenly, frozen pieces jangling noisily to the floor. With a sharp crack, the door jerked open, slamming with a thud against the interior wall and sending the Overwatch agents who had been pulling at the handle on the other side all flying backwards. The four of them stumbled and fell in a heap.

Kat braced herself against the door frame to prevent herself from tumbling into the pile too. She looked down at the dishevelled agents. They looked exhausted, dirty and a little more than worse for wear, Kat noted. The children peered out from behind her and giggled at the display.

Lena untangled herself from her teammates and sat up, “Kat, love! You’re a sight for sore eyes!”

Kat grinned. “Come on. Let’s get you all out of here,” she said, reaching out of offer Lena a hand.

Snowball squeezed past Kat and flew right into Mei’s waiting arms. “Snowball!” she cried, absolutely delighted to finally reunite with him. “You’re okay!” She lifted her companion and gave him a once over to be sure. Pleased to see he was fine, she hugged him again, choking back tears of joy.

Mei heard giggling and looked up to see Raymond accompanied this time by two boys and a young girl. They all grinned up at Mei like they had just pulled off the most magnificent scam. They immediately pounced on Mei and started pulling on her arms. "Where are the lollies, sis?" they demanded, all except Raymond who stood quietly to one side. Mei stood straight with her arms raised and the children where pulled, laughing into the air and dangling from her limbs. 

"Alright, alright!" Mei finally relented and set the children back down. Snowball hummed with excitement as he hovered above them. She dug in her pockets and pulled out the gobstoppers which they dove on greedily. 

During the chaos, Lúcio had fallen right on top of Hana. He scrambled awkwardly to his feet with a mumbled apology and reached for her hand so he could help her to her feet. She seemed to think nothing of it and accepted his hand up. He turned towards Kat, thankful for a distraction and hoping Hana wouldn’t notice the flush on his cheeks. “What are you all doing here?” Lúcio asked Kat, genuinely surprised to see her and the children.

Kat bent to pick up Jamie's frag launcher from the floor with one hand, and adjusted the backpack slung over her shoulders with the other hand. “Mick sent me up to get Snowball and the rest of your stuff,” Kat explained.

“ _Mick?_ ” the agents cried in unison. 

“But... but Mick was the one who locked us up!” Lena cried. 

“It’s a long story,” Kat said with a sigh. She looked as tired and dishevelled as the rest of them. “How’d you lot end up captured anyway...?”

“It's a long story,” Hana said with a grimace as the agents came to stand with Kat in the hallway.

“Never mind then,” Kat replied. “Here. I've brought yer kit.” She pulled the backpack from her shoulders and started pulling stuff out. Hana dove on her beacon and giggled with pure glee as she fit it back in place around her wrist. 

“Kat, you're a life-saver!” Lena exclaimed as everyone collected their items. Lena reloaded her pistols with a flick of her wrists. “Come with us! We need to get to Jamie and Satya.”

Kat looked nervous. She had only planned to get the agents’ equipment back to them and then high-tail it out of Junkertown as fast as she could. So far, helping Jamie and his friends out had caused nothing but trouble for Kat personally, including losing her job. It had always been like this; being friends with Jamie tended to get you in a lot trouble by association. But Jamie was still in danger. What if the queen turned the mechs on him like Mick said she would? Kat wasn’t so sure she would be able to live with herself if they hurt him. Something inside her loathed to admit it, but Jamie _was_ her friend. A scatter-brained, explosives-obsessed, downright madman of a friend. He had been a brother to her growing up; him and the other junkrats had been the only family she had ever known. He had been a mate that always had her back. And mates were supposed to help each other, weren’t they?

She sighed. “Do ya know where they are?”

“They took ‘em to the Scrapyard,” Raymond interjected. “We can show you the way.” The kids nodded enthusiastically.

Lena looked hesitant to drag the children into the matter but had to admit to herself that she had no idea how to get to the Scrapyard from here. Mei nodded to Lena encouragingly. “Okay, let’s go!” Mei said, smiling down at the children.

They all set off at a brisk pace following Raymond and his friends through twisting hallways. The kids turned periodically to call and beckon to Kat and the overwatch agents along the way. “This way! This way!” they called and waved their hands at the straggling adults. Giggling, they skipped ahead and chatted loudly to one another.

“Sh!” Kat had to caution them repeatedly. “Someone’ll hear!”

“No worries,” Raymond replied without concern. “We can just hide in the vents if someone comes.”

Kat frowned at him. “Well, we’re not small enough to fit in a vent!” she said motioning towards herself and the Overwatch agents. “Well, at least not anymore.”

“Well, that’s your problem,” Raymond said with a shrug. Kat huffed at him.

The children continued to lead them up multiple sets of stairs, turning occasionally to check the others were still following. As they climbed upwards through the old omnium, the air seemed fresher and warmer with every flight of stairs that passed. The children giggled and pulled on the agent’s hands to tug them in the right direction. Snowball joined in the game and chased the children up and down the halls, making them laugh and jump out of his way.

Finally, Raymond came to a halt in a long corridor and turned to Lena. “The Scrapyard’s down there,” Raymond said, pointing down the hallway. “Then up the stairs and through the doors.”

Lena took a steadying breath. “Thank you,” Lena said, turning to Raymond. “Now you better get going. Things are about to get very hairy around here. You kids need to scarper before you get hurt.”  
Kat nodded. “She’s right. You guys need to go warn the other junkrats and as many people as you can to get as far away from the Scrapyard as possible.”

“But we wanna help!” one of the small boys cried.

Kat bent to look him in the eye. “You can help by making sure you get to a safe place,” Kat said pointedly. The children pouted but didn’t argue further.

“Thank you for all your help, Raymond,” Mei said. She rested a hand tentatively on his shoulder. He looked up at her with surprise at the touch. Mei smiled down at him. “You and the other junkrats have helped us so much. We can’t thank you enough.”

Raymond looked unsure what to say. “That’s okay,” he said awkwardly.

“Go on now,” Lena said to the children. “Go and find somewhere safe.”

The children turned and trotted off in the opposite direction. They waved at Snowball as they left who made a noise of dejection in reply, seemingly sad to see them go. Raymond gave the agents one last lingering look, before jogging off to catch up to his friends.

Once they were out of sight, Lena turned to her team. “First priority, call the dropship. Once we activate the beacons, they'll be able to pinpoint us. Second priority, get Hana into position and summon a mech,” she said. 

“Yeah!” Hana cried excitedly. “Let’s rescue Jamie and Satya!”

“And then get the hell out of here,” Lúcio added without as much enthusiasm.

Lena nodded. “We’ve got to move quickly. Today is the last day the Korean satellite can remain stationed over Junkertown. I just hope the others back at the dropship haven't given up on us.”

“You with us Kat?” Mei asked. Snowball, who was floating beside her, beeped at Kat eagerly.

Kat nodded. “Let's get going. We don't wanna get caught hanging around here.” She motioned for them to follow her and they set off towards the Scrapyard. 

As everyone hurried off up the corridor, Hana paused. "Lúcio, wait!" she cried as she took hold of Lucio’s upper arm as he passed to catch his attention. The others surged ahead, leaving the two standing alone.

Lúcio was suddenly too nervous to speak, alone with her away from prying eyes. She looked equally nervous, her eyes not quite able to meet his and a subtle flush breaking out on her cheeks. It was so strange to see her behaving any differently from her usual confident demeanour.

"I... I just wanted to say... if anything happens to us today, I mean..., if we both survive this... w--will you...?" she stuttered, cheeks turned a deep shade of pink. She must be scared, he assumed. 

"Hana, don't worry, we'll be fine," he said with a reassuring smile. "I'll keep you healed, you keep me alive. Just like in training, remember?"

"It’s not that!" She looked frustrated at her inability to get her meaning across. "I want to know, if there's any chance, after we get back to Gibraltar, would you want to... I mean, will you..." She ran out of words again, and looking exasperated, she settled for a pleading look while she wrung her hands together. All of his nervousness left him. Was she trying to tell him how she felt? Did she feel the same way? Lúcio decided to rescue her.

"Hana, do you want to go on a date with me?" he asked.

She finally met his gaze. "Yeah! I mean... you know… only if you want to..." she tried to adopt a casual pose and a look of indifference but her heated cheeks betrayed her.

Lúcio almost laughed out loud. How long had he secretly been wondering if it would be safe to ask her out without risking their friendship, and all this time, she had been equally too nervous to ask him out too.

"Sounds like a great idea," he said. His stomach was turning somersaults inside with giddiness.

Hana expelled a sigh of relief. "Great!" She suddenly leapt forward and captured him around the neck with her arms so she could kiss him soundly. He froze in shock. He was suddenly unsure what to do with his hands. The feel of her lips pressed against his was so unexpected and yet delectably pleasing, he could only manage to gently return her enthusiasm with hesitant motions. When she pulled back, she was smiling up at him and he was tempted to chase her lips again for another kiss. “Just in case anything happens to us today,” she explained with a smile.

Lúcio didn't trust himself to say anything coherently so he kept his mouth shut. He nodded and smiled back at her.

She took hold of his hand and tugged him along to they could hurry after the others.

 

 

\--

 

 

As Satya retreated from the heat of the day back into the shelter of the Scrapyard, she sighed with blessed relief to finally be out of the intense sunshine. Her eyes readjusted to the dim interior light and she caught sight once more of the circle of men far below at the far side of the arena and Jamie trapped between them. Satya tried to maintain her composure. Her thoughts caught in a tangled panic as she remembered she was powerless to help him. _If only there was some way to get to him..._

They made their way down a steel staircase that lead from the external viewing platform above to the Scrapyard below. From where they were standing, almost every angle of the Scrapyard could be seen. The queen paused on the staircase, mid-decent and turned towards a gaping hole in the old omnium walls. Satya tore her eyes away from Jamie's form and joined the queen to look at the gap in the metal sheeting. It looked like some kind of damage had been sustained most likely by a mech during a battle in the Scrapyard Satya assumed. The metal was twisted where something had blasted through, the edges of the surrounding metal torn and gnarled into jutting sharp peaks. The hole was large enough to indicate something of considerable size had collided with the walls here. 

Tilda was watching her expectantly. "Well? Go on then," she said in a bored tone, nodding towards the hole. "Let's see if yer any good."

 _Any ‘good?’_  Satya bristled indignantly, but said nothing. She stepped forward, bringing her hands into position. Her gauntlet thrummed with energy as she began to weave hard-light into being. Of course, she didn't have any of the usual equipment that would normally be used in the construction of a large-scale hard-light city like her home, Utopaea. She would need to do this with only her gauntlet to assist her. 

It took a great deal of concentration and she had to gesture her arms widely to shape hard-light to a large enough size to cover the hole, but when Satya was finished, she sighed with satisfaction and shot the queen a superior look despite feeling suddenly exhausted. She stood back to admire her handy work, wiping at the sheen of sweat which had appeared on her brow. The blue hard-light structure fit securely into the gap between the metal sheets, glowing with faint blue light. The construct was a perfect fit. 

Tilda arched an eyebrow. "Not bad," she remarked. "Let's see how you go with some of the bigger gaps on the outer walls." Tilda turned to lead Satya down the staircase.

Satya, whose breath was coming in ragged gasps now, took hold of the nearby railing for support. She suddenly felt dizzy.

"No," Satya gasped, feeling as though she might faint. The act of creating enough hard-light to plug the hole in the wall had all but exhausted her. Blood was pulsing in her ears and her migraine had become painfully amplified.

Tilda stopped and turned to look back at Satya. "Remember our agreement, Ms. Vaswani," she growled warningly. "You do what yer supposed to do, or he gets it." Tilda nodded down at the Scrapyard where Jamie was for emphasis.

"I can barely stand," Satya rasped out. She met the queen's steady gaze and maintained her grip on the railing. "I'm dehydrated." Satya could barely remember the last time she had a drink. Jamie had rationed out his water from his canteen when they were back in the cells the night before, but those blessed few mouthfuls of water had been many hours ago now and she had been standing in the hot Australian sun since then.

Tilda turned fully towards Satya and considered her for a moment. "Do ya think I care?" She brought her spear down from where she had it resting across her shoulders and before Satya could react, the tip was slicing towards her only to pause millimetres from her face. Tilda stared at her down the length of the spear. From behind, Satya could hear the guards shuffling forward and the tell-tale sound of the safety mechanism on their shotguns being switched off. "Get on with it," the queen ground out.

Satya tried to keep her focus but her vision was blurring. She looked around for an escape but saw none. A guard stepped forward and took her roughly by her upper arm, jerking her roughly forward. She tried to fight back feebly but her energy was drained.

Kneeling below in the red dust of the Scrapyard floor, surrounded by guards, Jamie had watched as the queen and her posse of guards escorted Satya back inside. His pulse jumped immediately as he locked eyes with Satya. He ached to be free so he could rescue her from the guards’ midst.

Jamie's mind searched frantically for a way to get to Satya. He had gotten out of plenty of tight scrapes before; this should be easy! Of course, it had helped that Roadie had been with him those other times, to help calm his mind, encourage him to focus, and make decisions that lead to the best possible outcome. But Roadie wasn’t here now. He wasn’t going to magically appear and save Jamie or offer a few raspy, yet reassuring words of encouragement. Jamie was going to have to save himself. But where to start?

 _Calm down_ , a gentle voice inside said. _Breathe_.

So Jamie reined in his mind’s frantic pace and breathed, expelling a deep sigh with a huff. He closed his eyes. Satya had taught him some rudimentary _ayurvedic_ breathing exercises once to help keep him calm and pace his mind. ' _Pranayama_ ' she had called it.

"Maintain proper posture. Allow the breath to move freely in the body," she had said once. Her voice was soothing and melodic as always in his memory. He rolled his shoulders and settled into his sitting position, hands held in the _vishnu mudra_ position.

When Jamie opened his eyes again, he noticed the scene above had completely changed. The guards were closing in behind Satya now and the queen advanced forward with her spear raised towards Satya’s face. His hands twitched with eagerness to take action but his hands remained tied securely behind him with rope. Jamie watched helplessly as the queen threatened Satya. His breathing exercises forgotten and body wound tight with tension like a coil ready to spring, he watched Satya and the queen intently. Jamie’s face was a mask of frustration as he focussed entirely on the activity above.

With every tense moment that passed, his pulse quickened. His teeth ground together, itching to _do something_. If only he had his explosives, he would blow this whole place sky high. Time seemed to slow to a crawl while his mind ticked on frantically. Voices were running together now, memories of his interactions with other Overwatch agents cluttered his mind, confusing him. _Empty your mind. Focus on the task at hand…_ Although he could feel his veins were laced with adrenaline, he focussed on schooling his pulse back into a reasonable pace again. He needed to organise his thoughts if he was going to get out of here. _Remember your training, and we’ll get through this just fine._

Of course, his training! … _focus... focus... focus..._ They had been trained in various types of hand-to-hand combat, including what to do when outnumbered and disarmed. He tried to remember but his mind was frenzied and fraught with panic. _Calm. Be calm,_ he reminded himself. He rolled his head languidly, stretching a crick in his neck, then repeated the motion on the other side. A plan was beginning to formulate in his mind.

Jamie trained his eyes once again on the queen’s spear which was still aimed at Satya’s face. The final straw was when the guard grabbed hold of her arm and Satya sagged against the railing, all but defeated. He had to act now before they hurt her. Then they would pay for ever thinking of laying hands on Satya.

Many of the guards who surrounded Jamie had turned their attention to the metal catwalk above to see what was going on. The guard who was carrying a machete sneered at Jamie before he too turned his attention to the activity above. While their heads were pointed in the other direction, Jamie reached awkwardly around his body, as far as the ropes which bound him would allow, to the bulging pocket on his right side where the kids had slipped something in earlier. With the metal fingers of his right hand, he eased the round object into the palm of his prosthesis. Checking that the guards had not noticed his movement—and luckily they were still absorbed watching Satya and the queen high above them—Jamie quickly brought the object back behind his back. It felt reassuringly firm as he passed it to his other palm. Now all he needed was a source of ignition from the storage casing wrapped around his left wrist…

He took one final breath and steeled himself. He felt ready.

“Oi, what’re you doin’…?” One of the guards to Jamie’s right was watching him with suspicion. He turned and lumbered over to Jamie.

He paused mid-step when he caught sight of the dark look on Jamie’s face.

A toothy grin suddenly split Jamie’s face in two, a flash of light caught on his gold canine. The grin was followed by a chuckle, quiet at first then growing in intensity until he was giggling maniacally.

Other guards swivelled to see what had caused the racket from their prisoner. The guard with the machete stepped forward, blade raised threateningly.  
“Ay, cut that out, mate, right now or I’ll--”

The noise was deafening. From behind Jamie there was a burst of flame and smoke as something detonated. Some of the guards staggered backwards. Jamie’s torso rocked forward as flames licked up his back, destroying his singlet top, the remains of which fell away, smouldering to the factory floor. To the guards’ amazement, Jamie’s arms snapped to the sides and the ropes fell free, still smoking. He began to rise, pushing himself up on spindly legs, eyes glowing like two molten coals focussed on the man with the machete. There was blood on his left forearm where the explosion had obviously harmed him, and the acrid smell of burnt skin and singed hair hung in the air. All this aside, nothing could stop the terrifying grin on Jamie’s face as he stared unblinkingly back at the guards.

Hunched slightly, giving the appearance of some sort of creature rising from smoking ashes, Jamie raised his prosthetic hand—which luckily had not sustained significant damage—to his chin. He took hold of and soundly popped his jaw. The guards followed his every movement with their eyes, watching him with fearful awe. _What was this animal?_

Jamie dropped the hand from his chin, leaving a charcoal smear in its wake. “What’s the matter?” he rasped out, his voice low and dangerous. “Why so _serious?_ ”

All was still for the briefest of seconds before Jamie laughed, deep and raspy in his throat, then lunged forward.


	10. Chapter 10

Jamie launched himself forward, using his good leg to maximize his forward propulsion. Residual smoke and cinders curled in tendrils around his person and ghosted his every motion. He kept low, hunched like a creature, which allowed him to move faster. Covered in soot and grime, bloody and wild in the eyes, Jamie looked like a crazed animal.

Some of the guards sprung forward to stop him, guns raised and ready. Jamie instinctively rolled to the left as shots rang out, just as McCree had shown him once in the training grounds. He was gaining ground quickly. The guards were struggling to track his movements. Jamie laughed huskily deep in this throat. He was going to _enjoy_ this.

Propelling himself forward again, eyes locked on the guard who had fired at him, he struck out with his peg leg, hitting him in the chest and knocking him off balance. The guard howled in pain, perhaps not expecting to be struck with solid metal, and dropped his weapon to the factory floor and his body followed soon after. Jamie didn't stop to savour the mayhem he was causing, he had to keep moving because Satya was still in danger, but the sound of his metal leg connecting with the man’s ribs had been particularly satisfying, so he permitted himself a manic grin.

Righting himself, he turned his body immediately to meet another guard, swinging at him with his metal hand. This one had enough sense to duck and Jamie’s fist passed over him. Another guard raised the butt of his gun with the intention of bringing it down on Jamie’s head. As the man swung the weapon in a downward arc, throwing his entire weight behind the motion, Jamie sidestepped the blow with lightning speed and righted himself, kicking up red dust into the air. With a swift strike, he brought his elbow down and drove it into the man’s back while he was bent over with enough force to make him cry out and drop to the ground. Jamie stepped back and used his momentum to smash his other elbow into the midsection of another guard who was coming to his comrade’s aid. The air wheezed out of his lungs and he too dropped. 

Another guard stepped forward, weapon trained on Jamie but unable to take the shot with too many guards in the fray. Jamie rounded on him, the heal of his palm traversed up underneath the gun in the man's arms and connected with his jaw. His head snapped upwards with an audible ‘crack,’ the unexpected motion causing him to loosen his grip on the weapon. Jamie plucked it out of the air as the man joined the other guards on the dusty floor. Jamie had wanted this man’s weapon in particular because it was a riot shotgun, capable of holding up to ten shells, and Jamie knew he was going to need as much ammunition as possible.

Without missing a beat, Jamie turned on the next guard with his newly-acquired weapon raised, flipping the gun into a defensive hold. The man with the machete leapt forward, his blade raised above his head and glinting in the hot sun. He howled with rage as he swung towards Jamie who ducked under the blade’s arc just in time and the guard tripped forward into the dirt, surprised to have missed.

Sweat was sluicing down Jamie’s skin in rivulets and dripping in his eyes by this point, but he didn’t stop to wipe it away. Another man stepped forward to help his fallen comrade. Jamie swung the butt of the gun up to knock the weapon out of the guard's hand, swiftly disarming him. He followed up with a sharp crack across the face with the side of the gun. He too dropped to the Scrapyard floor. 

The man with the machete had recovered and was about to leap back up but paused when he caught sight of Jamie standing over him, shotgun in hand. Wisely, he decided to scramble away, leaving his machete behind.

Jamie turned his weapon on the remaining men and took aim. By this point, most of the guards were fleeing in terror. One dropped his weapon and raised his hands in surrender. Those who weren’t passed out, jumped to their feet and scurried away.

Now was his chance. Tucking the shotgun under one arm, Jamie turned and set off across the factory floor, eyes trained on Satya and only her. He wasn’t grinning any more. The look was fierce determination.

Satya had watched the entire confrontation below with disbelief. Jamie had just fought off almost a dozen men single-handedly, and now he was heading this way. He was coming for her, Satya realised. The look on his face gave her the impression he was ready to raze the whole city to the ground just to get to her. Her heart swelled with feelings of relief and pride. Eyes locked with his, she felt a surge of energy. If she could just get to him, she could use her hard-light to shield them and maybe they could fight their way out of here.

Beside Satya, Tilda made a gargled noise deep in her throat which sounded half fearful, half annoyed. The queen and her guards had all paused and turned to watch Jamie after the explosion had caught their attention. Now they stood with eyes wide as they stared down at the confrontation below.

“Stop him!” Tilda screeched, and the guards who had been advancing on Satya rushed down the stairs to engage Jamie. Left alone with the queen, Satya saw her chance.

She reached forward with both hands to grab hold of the queen’s spear, using the forward momentum to smash the handle into the queen’s face. Surprised, the queen tried to jerk away but Satya refused to let go. She was pulled towards the queen and they wrestled for the spear momentarily, before Satya tried to knee the taller woman in the stomach. That just seemed to make the queen even angrier. With a cry of fury, Tilda pushed Satya backwards, the spear still caught between them. Satya fell back against the railing with the queen bearing down on her. With her shoulder blades resting on the railing, Satya was dangerously close to tipping over the edge and plummeting into the Scrapyard below. Satya’s strength was failing fast, as the queen forced the spear’s handle towards Satya’s throat and pressed down.

Jamie witnessed all of this from below and redoubled his efforts. He was breathing heavily but he forced his legs to pump in time with his heart. The guards had reached the Scrapyard floor now and were hurrying to intercept him.

Jamie rolled forward and as his body came up, he drove his shoulder into a guard’s midsection who promptly stumbled backwards and collided with another guard just behind him. Jamie just barely sidestepped another blow as a guard came barrelling towards him with a crowbar in hand. He sailed past Jamie and tumbled to the dusty ground.

Jamie turned on the next guard who arrived just behind his comrade. Switching the shotgun to his left hand, he swung his metal hand forward with his entire weight behind it, the muscles in his shoulders and down his back wringing taut. His fist connected soundly with the man’s jaw and he was sent flying, colliding with two others, knocked out.

And here he had thought hand-to-hand combat training would be a complete waste of time.

Jamie was almost spent. He took aim again with his shotgun and fired a warning shot, hoping they hadn’t noticed his fatigue yet. What few remained of the queen’s guard took the hint and retreated from his sight. Relieved, Jamie picked up the pace again towards the metal staircase that lead to the catwalk above.

Satya pushed back with all her strength on the staff as it lowered towards her neck. It was no use; the queen was much stronger and had an advantageous position leaning over Satya. Her face was deathly calm as she pressed down, staring unblinking right into Satya’s fearful eyes. Satya wasn’t about to give in. With a strangled cry, she lashed out with her booted heel and kicked at Tilda’s ankle. Tilda clearly hadn’t been expecting that and stumbled to one side. It was the briefest moment of reprieve but it was all Satya needed, she pushed one side the spear up with one final surge of energy and the sudden motion caused the spear to smash into the queen’s left cheek. As the queen fell back, Satya pushed herself upright and ran for the staircase.

As she descended, her eyes sought out Jamie’s and found them. He was rushing to meet her. He was shirtless now and covered in soot, as he frequently was on missions. There was a wild look in his eye, but she didn’t hesitate. She practically threw herself the last few steps to the factory floor and took off running towards him.

She looked and saw him reaching for her. Almost of its own volition, her hand reached out for his in desperation as though they had been separated for years. Fingers searching, finally her hand was in his. She didn’t even mind the blood and grime on his arm where she’d seen him take the brunt of the cherry bomb explosion. She felt instantly calmer the moment his larger hand was cupped against her palm. Breathing a sigh of relief, she met his gaze. He grinned down at her, but there was no time to stop. He pulled her with him and together they started running towards the nearest cover.

“Alright, Sweets?” he asked with a laugh as they ran. She could see the skin on his back was bloody and singed just like his left arm, but he seemed complete unfazed by his injuries.

“I’ll be much better once we are safe!” she called back.

There was a hail of bullets behind them. Reinforcements had arrived. Jamie laughed like a madman but Satya thought it was all decidedly unfunny. He spun to return fire, pulling her so she was on his safe side away from the onslaught. As she turned, she spun light through her fingers to form a shield. With a flourish of her arms, she flung the hard-light in an outward arc that solidified into a shield-like construct, standing erect from the factory floor, just in time to block a round of ammunition from hitting her boyfriend. The bullets clinked uselessly against the hard-light and fell away.

“Thanks, darl’,” Jamie laughed and tugged her forward again. They headed towards a set of large metal doors, the same ones they had been brought through earlier when Mick had taken them from their cell. They needed to get to the others before they could be stopped.

Suddenly there was a deafening noise like the revving of engines which brought Jamie and Satya to a skidding stop. From high above, large forms came leaping from viewing platforms raised above the Scrapyard and crashed into the factory floor. Red dust was thrown up into the air, and the two Overwatch agents stumbled, coughing, as the floor beneath them shook violently with the impact. The dust cleared and Satya squinted through the haze to see half a dozen large metal forms towering over them.

 _Mechs,_ Satya realised.

Their pilots could be seen staring down at them through the twisted metal. The mechs appeared to be constructed out of colourful spare parts and junk, much like the rest of Junkertown. Some appeared to have been cars and buses in a previous life.  

Jamie tried to push her to safety behind him and raised his shotgun. He pumped the fore-end to expel a spent wad and reload ready for the next onslaught. All around them, more of the queen’s reinforcements seemed to spill out of every doorway and advanced towards the couple with weapons raised. They were cornered.

“Jamison Fawkes!”

Satya looked up and saw Tilda had recovered and was standing high above the action on the metal catwalk. Everyone’s attention shifted to their queen. “You’ve met your end! The time for games is over!” Tilda cried. Her authoritative tone echoed around the cavernous arena, making everyone fall silent until nothing but the quiet hum of machinery nearby could be heard. She maintained a white-knuckled grip on the railing and her mohawk was askew. Satya could tell even from here the queen was wild with rage. She pointed her spear down at them. “Take him and destroy the girl!” she commanded her followers.

Jamie’s grip on Satya tightened. He was still breathing heavily, but he refused to shift from his defensive stance shielding her from the aiming sights of the guard’s weapons. The guards advanced, staring at Jamie and Satya down the barrels of their guns. Satya braced herself. She wasn’t sure they were going to be able to get out of this one.

Suddenly there was a flash of blue and someone giggled. Satya felt a draft of air which sent her loose hair fluttering as something rushed past her. Satya glanced around but whatever it was had been too fast to follow with her eyes.

There was a distinct sound of pulse ammunition striking metal as Lena blinked into existence before them and aimed at the mech nearest Jamie and Satya. All weapons seemed to turn and aim at her before she blinked away, faster than anyone could track. With another laugh, Lena phased into sight again and let fire at the line of guards behind the mechs, harassing their back lines. “Yeah!” she laughed, spinning out of the air and blinking away again before anyone could even train their weapon on her.

There was another loud bang and Jamie turned in time to see something come crashing through the cracked glass of the Scrapyard ceiling and land a little distance away.  
“MEKA activated!” Hana cried and dove headfirst into her brightly coloured mech as it touched down in front of her. She and Lúcio were standing not too far away, near the door that lead down to the cells.

Once she was safely inside her mech, Hana took aim with her blasters. “I'm going to own all these noobs!” she screamed, which made Lúcio look up at her in alarm. “Boosters engaged!” And she was off and crashing into the mechs surrounding Jamie and Satya, Lúcio tagging along behind to keep her healed. Upbeat dub-step was blasting from his Sonic Amplifier as the two of them sent mechs and guards flying backwards in all directions.

The Junkertown mechs were not as well constructed as Hana’s mech and some downright fell apart as she collided with them. Some of the mech pilots scrambled out of the wreckage and sprinted away while others moved to engage her.

“You better get out of the way!” Hana warned them.

Lena fell in line beside her, blinking in and out of sight whilst firing at the guards that were rushing forward to support the Junkertown mechs. “Wha-hoo!” she cried, coming out of a mid-air spin to unload a round of pulse ammunition at the enemy.

“Jamie!”

Jamie and Satya turned to see Kat and Mei standing not far away. _How did they all get free?_ Jamie wondered. Kat had Jamie’s frag launcher clutched in her arms and Mei held Satya’s photon projector in such a way that looked like she had no idea how to use it. Before Mei could stop her, Kat set off running towards Jamie and Satya.

Shots rang out from across the Scrapyard and Jamie realised they were being shot at. They needed to get to cover as soon as possible. In all the chaos and panic, Jamie saw an opportunity and tugged at Satya’s hand. They both set off jogging towards Kat. They ducked under a Mech as it swung at them, and carried on. Jamie kept his eyes trained on the frag launcher. If he could just get hold of it again, he could much better help Lena and Hana fight back.

Time slowed for a moment, and Jamie watched a series of events occur in slow motion. First, Kat’s shoulder jerked backwards like she had been struck. Satya turned to erect another barrier behind them just a moment too late. Jamie’s insides went cold as Kat dropped to the factory floor, blood blossoming on her shirt where she’d been shot. The frag launcher rolled out of her arms and settled in the dirt.

“Kat!”

Jamie raced towards her as fast as he could on his peg leg, falling to her side in the red dust. Satya was right behind Jamie. She finished creating the barrier out of hard-light to protect them while Jamie rolled Kat onto her back.

Kat’s eyes were wild as she stared at the growing wetness on her shirt. Lúcio must have seen her fall because he came racing over, tunes blaring.

“You okay?” he asked Kat.

“Okay?” Kat cried, breathless. “I’ve been _shot!_ ”

Jamie helped her shove the fabric of her shirt aside so Lúcio could inspect the wound, but before he’d even finished doing so, the wound seemed to have healed itself. Lúcio winked at them. “Audio medic!” he laughed. He took off to re-join Hana and Lena.

Jamie looked down and realised his left forearm was no longer burnt and stinging, the skin healed and whole again. The pain from the damaged skin on his back also seemed to have stopped. Lúcio’s presence must have repaired the injuries caused by the cherry bomb he let off earlier.

Kat stared in confusion at the place where she was sure she had been shot just a moment ago. It had hurt like hell too, but now the pain was all gone. There was still blood on her skin and shirt, but underneath her skin was smooth and unbroken. Kat had never seen anything like it.

“How did…?” she began.

“Bullet must have passed clean through so Lúcio only need to heal the wound,” Jamie said by way of explanation, and started to jerk the backpack from Kat’s shoulders so he could rummage inside. Kat’s expression of confusion didn’t shift.  

“But, how did…? He didn’t do anything…” Kat began.

“I’ll explain later,” Jamie said impatiently, still digging in the backpack and pulling items out.

Mei caught up to them at that point, Snowball floating beside her. “Satya, here!” She handed over the Photon Projector, which Satya accepted gratefully. She turned and set off to help Lena and Hana, projecting a photon barrier as she went.

“Here!” Jamie shoved the shotgun he was carrying into Kat’s arms and scooped up his frag launcher. He had managed to find a clip of grenades in Kat’s backpack and his satchel full of concussion mines which he slung around his shoulders. Their backs were pressed against the barrier Satya had erected which only came up to just above their heads as they crouched in the dirt.

Kat checked the shotgun was loaded and turned to aim it over the barrier. “Is the safety off…?” Jamie started to ask her. “Yes!” she interrupted irritably. Kat noticed bullets were ricocheting off Satya’s barrier and returned fire.

Jamie turned to Mei who was kneeling beside him. At some point she had lost her straw sunhat during their capture, and her normally neat hair bun was all askew. “Can you get Snowball to start a blizzard?” he asked her as he loaded a clip of grenades into the frag launcher.

Mei shook her head. “No. He’s out of ice.”

Jamie stopped what he was doing and fixed her with an incredulous look. “ _Out of_ … What do you mean ‘ _out of ice_ ’?” he demanded.

“It’s hot! And he’s dehydrated!” Mei shot back at Jamie. Snowball whimpered beside her. He had used the last of this water reserves to destroy the lock on their jail cell door. It retrospect, it perhaps hadn’t helped to let him waste what little water he had on making snowflakes for the children earlier.

“ _He ran out of ice?_ ” Jamie stared at her with disbelief.  “You can’t just ‘run out of ice,’ Mei! I thought you could make ice out of the water in the air!” His hands jerked up to gesture all around them with clear frustration.

Mei was furious. “There _is_ no water in this air! It’s Australia, Jamie!”

“For _fuck’s_ sake!” Jamie sprung up, gripping his frag launcher once again and launched a volley of grenades at the enemy line. “Stay here with Kat!” he told Mei and vaulted over the barrier. “Kat, cover me!”

“Gotcha,” she called back as she pumped the shotgun’s fore-end roughly to reload.

He dodged a mech which was bearing down on Hana, the legs of her mech skidding in the dirt and struggling to find purchase. Lena blinked up behind the mech and attached a pulse bomb, recalling before the resulting explosion detonated. The mech rocked forward, the pilot inside howling with anger, and turned to swing at Lena. Another mech came forward to help his comrade.

Jamie fired a round of grenades over Lena’s head, forcing the mechs to retreat. “Lena! Got yer back,” he shouted over the din.

She shot him a smile. “Roger!” she called back.

Behind them, guards were rushing forward to help the mechs. “If you see any ammunition, bring it to Kat!” Jamie called to the rest of the team, mindful that she probably only had a few ammunition shells left.

Although they were outnumbered, the Overwatch agents were far better versed in combat and their weapons were far more advanced than those of the queen’s guards. With many disarmed, injured, and with no healer of their own, they started to retreat, much to Tilda’s fury. She let out a howl of anger from the catwalk high above them as she observed the chaos below.

There were only two mechs remaining now. Together, the agents collectively bore down on the mech Hana was wrestling with. Jamie and Lena send round after round of ammunition at the mechs, aiming for weak spots in the armour. Lúcio brought up the rear, keeping them all healed with his music. With one well-placed concussion mine, Jamie finally blew the mech apart.

 _Just one more…_  Jamie thought to himself as they turned on the final mech.

A little distance away, Satya had finally found a guard who was carrying a similar weapon to Kat’s. She finished draining his energy and relieved his prone form of ammunition, which she intended to give to Kat who must surely be running low on shells. The guard groaned but lacked the strength to get back up. “Thank you,” Satya said with bemusement as she took the ammunition, and hurried over to group up with her team.

Hana let her micro-missiles fly, the resulting volley of explosive rockets combined with the efforts of her teammates destroying the remaining mech. The pilot freed himself from the wreckage, took one look at the agents, and bolted with a cry of alarm.

Amidst the debris that littered the Scrapyard floor and the retreating line of guards, the Overwatch agents finally had a moment of reprieve. They exchanged looks of relief with one another.

“Lúcio!” Hana cried excitedly, swivelling her mech cabin to face him. “Did you see me! I fought real Junkertown mechs! It was the best!”

Lúcio laughed. “How about _that_ for a ‘no-combat mission’!” Hana laughed with him too. She was clearly tired but she smiled back at him from her cockpit.

Kat and Mei came hurrying over to group up with them. Mei held Snowball clutched safely in her arms.

They barely had a moment to orientate themselves before the sound of surging engines erupted all around them. They swung around to see fresh mechs emerging from every crevice of the Scrapyard, rushing towards them ready to support the remaining guards. Jamie’s stomach dropped. Just when they thought they were in the clear, reinforcements just kept showing up. How many mechs did they _have_? When he was younger, he had started an apprenticeship as a mechanic at the Scrapyard working on maintaining the mechs but he lost that job pretty quick. Back then there was about ten to fifteen mechs used for gladiator style battles in the arena, but it seemed like they had faced more than that today. Had they built more since he was gone? He didn’t have time to ponder it for much longer as Tilda who was watching them from above let out a triumphant laugh.

The mechs approached with a line of guards at their rear. Jamie swore and switched back into a defensive position while Satya erected a rudimentary hard-light shield around them. It wouldn’t hold for long against heavy fire and a dozen mechs, but it would give the agents a moment to regroup.

“We can’t keep this up forever. We need to get out of here now,” Jamie told them.

“Even if we manage to get out of the Scrapyard, we’ve got to get out of Junkertown after that,” Lúcio pointed out as he reloaded his Sonic Amplifier.

“And will we have to fend off the townspeople too?” Lena asked, turning her attention towards Jamie.

Jamie wasn’t sure of his answer.

The mechs stood tall all around them in a loose circle. Some of them had cobbled-together weapons integrated into the mech’s design, with claws and canons where one might have expected to see robotic arms, or semi-automatic weapons mounted on top of the pilot’s cabin. One even seemed to have chainsaws for arms, which it began to swing threateningly. There must have been more than a dozen of the strange machines closing in on them. Inside, the pilots looked enraged that their first round of mechs had been destroyed.

The agents pressed in closer together, with Mei at their centre to protect her. Mei clutched Snowball closer to her chest fearfully. The mechs advanced forward with the few remaining guards at the rear, all with their weapons trained on the exhausted agents. They were surrounded. The mech with chainsaws for arms stepped forward, blades spinning with a loud, sickening churn of the chainsaw motors. The pilot swung towards Satya’s barrier but paused before he could connect. Something had interrupted him.

There were murmuring voices from all around them. Satya looked up and saw the observation decks and viewing platforms slowly filling with people. They had been making such a racket in the Scrapyard, they must have finally attracted the attention of the townspeople. Satya had never seen such a strange assortment of people. All manner of people came to see what was going on; men, women, and the elderly among them. There were all shades of colours of hair. Many were tanned, freckled and tattooed. Satya could see children too, clutching at their parents’ knees or swaddled in their arms. All were staring down at the chaos of the Scrapyard floor with expressions of bewilderment and alarm. Some were pointing at the mechs and shooting looks of confusion at one another.

The guards also looked around at the newcomers, uncertain what to do. They looked to their queen. Jamie followed their gaze and saw Tilda still perched on the catwalk above. Her voice rang out, quickly seizing the attention of the townspeople.

“Junkertown!” she cried and the murmuring quietened instantly. All attention shifted to their queen. “Today is a momentous day! Our home has been invaded by these outsiders but your queen has stopped them!” She pointed her spear down at the Overwatch agents. “They came here to destroy you, but I wouldn’t allow it!” she went on. “They bring A.I. and weapons designed to harm us.” She looked at Hana’s MEKA in particular as she said this part. “Now we must destroy _them_ , before they can wreak their havoc!”

“What is she doing?” Lena wondered aloud as she squinted up at the catwalk through the intense sunlight.

“She’s trying to convince them to help her attack us,” Kat grumbled. She hoisted her freshly reloaded shotgun into a better position.

The queen’s voice echoed all around them again. “These outsiders come here now to dethrone me and destroy your way of life. Remember how the world forgot us when the omnics attacked? The government declared us illegals in an exclusion zone and refused to send aid. The world ignored us as we suffered. No one protected you. No one came to save you. Except me. I gave you a home. I protect you from the outside world, from the ones who have forsaken us, the ones who left you to _rot_.” She drew herself up to her full height. “Now here they stand before you. They ask for forgiveness. They want your mercy! Did they show you mercy when they left us to die in the wake of the Omnic Crisis and moved on with their lives? How would you like to repay them Junkertown?”

There were jeers and cries of support from the growing crowd. The Overwatch agents looked at each other fearfully and realisation dawned on them. What hope did they stand against several hundred people? Not even their fancy weapons and battle strategies could save them against sheer numbers.

Jamie looked up at the crowds of people all around them as the cacophony of cries grew in volume. She sure knew how to stir up a crowd, Jamie had to credit her for that at least. Jamie watched the queen unleash her diatribe, but said nothing. He was tired. And not just in the immediate sense of the word. Yes, he hadn’t slept properly or showered in days—he also hadn’t eaten anything since they had visited Bruce and Lin’s shop the previous evening—but on a much more basic level, Jamie was tired.

He had been running from this place for years. Running away from these people, running away from bounty hunters, and ultimately running away from who he used to be. He had been told all his life that he was a nuisance and danger to others. When the high and mighty queen—who he swore always had it out for him—finally had enough and kicked him out, he promised himself he was going to prove his worth. Who did she think she was anyway? Queen of the world? Bossing him around like that? She and her cronies were always telling him he was nothing. Right from the start, when he was just a little junkrat trying to scrap to get by, everyone always told him he’d never amount to anything. Junkrats never did. They were just ‘thieves’ and ‘layabouts.’ Junkrats never grew up and got any of the important jobs.

He used to show her just what he thought of her rule by causing as much trouble for the queen as possible. He made sure to use his knowledge of explosives to the best of his abilities and made every effort to destroy anything that he knew would really get to her, including the tattoo parlour that one time, the guard’s four-wheel-drive they used for supply runs, the queen’s summer shack… They even had to keep ordering in thrones because he kept blowing them up any chance he got.

When the queen finally kicked him out, he decided he was going to be the ruler of his own life. No more simpering and living his life in servitude to their self-appointed monarch. He was going to make himself a king and prove himself her equal.

Roadie had told him his plan was crazy, but Jamie got the idea in his head that if he could get a hold of his own crown, a real one, he would be a king for real. He set his sights on the British crown jewels after that. The crown in particular he coveted among the regalia. It was well guarded and in truth there must have been easier treasure out there for stealing, but he had his heart set on this one. He planned for weeks how he was going to do it. Never underestimate an adept pyromaniac’s abilities with explosives and throw in an overgrown bodyguard like an apocalyptic force to be reckoned with, and the pair were unstoppable. No amount of fire power or royal security could stop them. And when they succeeded, there was no describing the feeling. He had finally gone and stolen the crown jewels; he was finally a king! King Jamison the First! It had a nice ring to it too.

Well, at least he _had_ been king in his mind for a couple of weeks before the London bobbies caught up with him and he went to jail for a bit. But still, it felt good to do something no other junker had done. It felt good to show all them folks back home how easily he could make himself royalty. He used to lie awake at night and imagine the looks on all those naysayers’ faces who used to tell him he’d never amount to anything when they saw him on the news. He’d travelled further than any of them, become more famous than any of them, and made a name and a career for himself.

And then he had joined Overwatch. His life had completely changed once again. There had been a period of adjustment—he had never lived so comfortably before and getting used to not having to lie, steal and cheat to get by was also a new sensation—but Jamie came to enjoy working honestly. At Overwatch he was free to create as many explosives as he wished and then he got to use them in the field, blowing up as many Talon agents as he wanted to, and he got paid for it! He had made friends for the first in a long time with Overwatch. Even Roadie seemed to enjoy the change in company. Jamie saw firsthand the impact his efforts had towards Overwatch’s goals for peace and stability in the world and he was proud of what he had become. Going legit had been a good idea in the end.

Jamie seemed to reach a moment of epiphany as the queen continued her rant. He didn’t need this place. He was tired to trying to impress these people, trying to define his self-worth in terms that they had laid out for him. He knew he had worth and he defined in in his own terms. It was why Overwatch chose him, it was why Satya chose him. He had proven he could do just about anything and still the rest of Junkertown rejected him. He was tired. And he’d had enough of these people. He’d outgrown Junkertown. If they didn’t want him here, it didn’t matter. Maybe he had let them convince him he was wrong and worthless in the past, but he wasn’t about to let them do it now.

He looked around at his team. They looked stricken. Faces leered down at them from above, but there was something else that Jamie perceived in his teammate’s expressions, something that almost looked like guilt. Maybe they had taken what the queen had said about the world abandoning Junkertown to heart.

Jamie reached out and touched Lena on the shoulder, which seemed to shake her from her reverie. She tore her eyes away from the queen standing high above and met his gaze with a shuddering breath. He smiled reassuringly. “Don’t worry, she’s full of shit,” Jamie said, causing Lena to release a small giggle. “We’re not down for the count yet.” Lena smiled back and heaved a deep sigh. The others heard his words and turned to look at him.

“Stick together and look out for each other,” Jamie reminded them. “Let’s not make it too easy for ‘em, eh?”

There was a moment of silence as they absorbed what he had said, then everyone nodded as they steeled themselves. This was likely to be their final stand and their chance of survival was slim.

Kat took a steadying breath and rolled her shoulders beside Jamie.

Satya stepped forward and flung her arms around his neck. She had been watching him closely while mixed emotions—pride? sadness?—flitted across her features. She kissed him modestly on the cheek and whispered in his ear, “ _I love you_.”

He brought her close with one arm and nodded into her neck. “ _Not long now, love,_ ” he whispered back.

Tilda looked down at the Overwatch agents with a victorious grin before addressing the crowd of Junkertown citizens again. “Now, do your duty! Fight! Your queen is waiting!” The townspeople were murmuring among themselves, unsure what to do. It seemed not many had permission to carry weapons as they largely appeared to be unarmed. Perhaps they were unsure what they were supposed to fight the Overwatch agents _with_. A heavy silence descended on the Scrapyard.

“Why don’t _you_ do some fighting for a change!?” a man’s voice echoed across the arena from the crowd of people standing on a platform above the large metal gates that blocked the main entrance to the Scrapyard.

The Overwatch agents whipped their heads around to look up at the source of the voice. Standing high above, a man was standing prominently amidst the people gathered on the platform. Taller than the rest and dark-skinned, he stood out from the crowd, one finger extended towards the queen. Everyone turned to see who had spoken. It was Mick.

“Who dares to speak to me like that! I am your queen!” Tilda’s voice shook with rage.

Mick went on, “They’re not just outsiders.” His voice echoed across the arena. “There’s junkers down there too!”

Jamie stared up at Mick in a stupor. Was Mick really making a stand against the queen? It looked like he had come in with the crowds of people from the town rather than joining ranks with the queen’s guards. Had he brought the townspeople to see what the queen was doing? Jamie had thought Mick had betrayed them but here he was sticking up for the Overwatch agents like he had been on their side the entire time. Jamie wondered if maybe he was seeing things as a result of the heat and exhaustion.

More murmurs broke out from the crowd, more looks of confusion were exchanged. People were looking down at him and Kat. Under the scrutiny of the crowd, Jamie took a gulp of air and tried to stay calm. Some people were pointing at him now. Did they remember him? Did they recognize him?

Tilda looked concerned that she might be losing the crowd’s support. “Jamison Fawkes is not one of us anymore. He’s thrown in his lot with these outsiders in an act of revenge against me. They’re conspiring with the government to destroy us!” Tilda cried. She stood tall as she addressed the gathered people. “We’ll all be made to leave if they have their way! Then where will you go? Are you going to fight for our land?” she demanded.

It was her trump card, Jamie realized; reminding the junkers that they needed to fight for their land. That was what had started this whole mess to begin with. They fought the omnics so they could keep their land. It was the foundation of their whole society and they couldn’t deny a call to arms to defend their land again. There would be no stopping their attack now.

“‘ _Our land’?_ ” Mick’s voice rang out again. Jamie focussed on Mick again. What could he possibly say to keep the rest of the junkers at bay? “The government tried to give away land that didn’t belong to them to the Omnics! And when that went wrong, you swooped in and stole it for yourself! There’s no ‘our land’ about it.” There were gasps of shock as everyone stared at Mick in wonder. No one had ever spoken to the queen like that before.

Tilda was wild in the eye. “We took this land back--!”  
Mick interrupted her before she could begin. “ _YOU_ took it back! We fought for this land thirty years ago because they tried to take it away. Now look where we are! We still don’t have our land back. Living in servitude, taxed for living on our own land, and no better off! You keep people down so you stay at the top!” His gaze was intense as he stared across the divide between them at his queen. All around, the crowd was beginning to murmur in support of Mick.

“They’ll take it from us again!” Tilda erupted. “Are you going to allow them to take everything we fought hard for?”

“It’s Arrernte land!” Mick cried. “It’s not yours to take! This country’s gotta stop stealing other people’s land!” He paused only to take a breath. “We fought plenty with the omnics. We shouldn’t be fighting each other over this shit anymore.”

“Shut up!” The queen was furious. 

“It was a land-grab and _you know it!_ ” Mick’s booming voice reverberated throughout the arena with such intensity, he simply demanded everyone’s attention. The air was charged and crackling with energy. He was staring right at Tilda with an expression of pure anger on his face.

The queen’s face was flushed with rage. “Enough!” she shouted. She turned her attention back to the packed viewing platforms all around and addressed the crowd. “You will fight for me. If you stand against me, you will be killed.”

There was movement on the other side of the arena as Mick turned to the gathered crowds once again. “People of Junkertown! The queen has stolen your land, taxed your lives into oblivion, and now she has declared war on her own people! Are you going to put up with this!?” The crowds of people looked uneasy. There were some cries of support for the queen, and many more against her. Tilda was entirely done with this whole fiasco.

“Finish them,” she commanded her guards standing below in the Scrapyard. “Destroy all who oppose you.” The guards nodded and began their advance towards the Overwatch agents and the crowds of people, who screamed and tried to flee. With that, she hefted her spear in one hand and took aim at the Overwatch agents below.

The Overwatch agents looked around in alarm. The guards, the mechs, and perhaps half the town were about to descend upon them. They were tired and their weapons were almost spent. There was no way they were going to be able to survive this.

Before anyone could do much of anything, a dark shadow had fallen over the Scrapyard followed by a distant rumbling. The Overwatch agents looked around in confusion. Everyone looked up to see what was blocking their light. At first Jamie assumed thick grey clouds were blocking out the sun, because when he looked up through the broken glass of the Scrapyard ceiling and past the blasted hole in the top of the dome structure, all he could see was a dark grey colour which seemed to grow darker and darker with each passing second. Then Jamie realised that whatever it was, it was humming like machinery and the distinct whine of jet propulsion engines could be heard.

Everyone stared upwards in quiet awe as whatever it was descending on the Scrapyard from above whipped up the red earth of the Scrapyard floor. Most dropped their weapons to shield their eyes from the dust. The light waned thin and they were almost pitched into darkness. Only a few floodlights affixed to the Scrapyard walls kept the space illuminated. Some of the guards scrambled away in fear. Despite the chaos around him, nothing could tear Jamie’s slack-jawed amazement away from what he was witnessing. A grin broke out on his face.

The dropship had arrived.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: THE MAGIC OF FRIENDSHIP!
> 
> Let’s play guess that quote!
> 
> “This country’s gotta stop stealing other people’s land!” is a line from one of my favourite Aussie films (‘The Castle,’ 1997).
> 
> Also… Mick’s little “People of Junkertown!” speech might be a call back to Phoebus’s rallying cry from Disney’s ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ (1996). 
> 
> And finally, the exchange between Mei and Jamie about Snowball being dehydrated (I just had to put it in there, it was too perfect) was from Pixar’s ‘The Incredibles’ (2004).


	11. Chapter 11

Jamie watched the dropship's descent with amazement.

“How?” he asked aloud to no one in particular.

“We activated our beacons just before we got to the Scrapyard,” Lena said from beside him, flashing the device on her wrist at him for emphasis. She laughed at his look of pure bewilderment. He wanted to ask her questions like how she got her beacon back in the first place, but he was stunned into silence.

The ground shook suddenly and the metal supports all around them groaned under the weight of the dropship as it touched down. It had perched itself on top of the dome-like structure which enclosed the Scrapyard. The gaping hole at the top of the dome caused by the core explosion some thirty years ago was suddenly blocked out and the whole arena was pitched into darkness. The floodlights lit up the edges of the arena, lending a dramatic atmosphere as everyone looked up at the dropship. It must have been quite the sight to behold from the outside of the arena. Finally, a thin slat of white light appeared from an opening beneath the dropship, which widened until it created a large shaft of blinding illumination from above. Four human-like shapes appeared, silhouetted against the light.

From the open hatch, the four figures swooped down on wires, each with a foot hooked into a suspension rig. They lowered past the broken glass of the Scrapyard ceiling—which was kicked out of the way—and on towards the ground.

As the figures came into view, Jamie recognised Angela, Jack, Winston and—thank god—Roadie all being lowered to the ground and dressed ready for battle. Jamie threw his arms wide and laughed at the sight. It was like watching angels descending from the heavens. Four very strange and out-of-place angels.

Jamie looked closely and saw both Winston and Roadie were carry extra equipment with them. Winston had Lúcio’s hard-light blades slung over one shoulder. Similarly, Roadie had something clutched protectively under one arm while his other arm clung to the suspension rig. It looked like a giant blue water cooler. It was Mei’s Endothermic Blaster, Jamie realised. They just had to get it to Mei now.

Mei was still crouched in the midst of the Overwatch agents, just behind Jamie. When he turned to her, he saw that her eyes were trained on the Endothermic Blaster too. “Stick with me,” Jamie told her and she nodded in reply. With determination, they vaulted over Satya’s barrier and ran towards the point where Roadie and the others were about to touch down. Jamie protected Mei with a spray of grenades as they went.

As the wind from the ship’s engines whipped up the factory floor, some junkers scrambled to flee in the resulting chaos. “It’s the government!” one of the junkers cried as he bolted past Jamie. “I’m not going back to jail!”

The four new arrivals touched down and Winston immediately activated a shield. Jamie and Mei stepped gratefully behind the cover.

“ _Mein Gott!_ Are you all alright?” Angela looked at the sight before them, her golden wings trembling with alarm. She was dressed smartly in her Valkyrie Suit which stood in contrast to the younger Overwatch team members who were bloodied, filthy, and looked utterly exhausted. Jamie in particular was exceptionally bloody and his hair was messier than usual, lending him a wild, battle-worn air.  Not only that, but the whole Scrapyard was a chaotic mess of guards charging and firing in all directions. There were townspeople screaming, some in fear as they either tried to flee the Scrapyard or join in the battle. Some mechs charged towards Hana’s MEKA, which prompted Winston to dive into the fray so he could lend his support, Lúcio’s blades in hand.

“It’s a free-for-all,” Angela remarked before turning a disapproving scowl on Jack. “I _told_ you we should have come sooner!” Jack’s face was obscured by his tactical visor so it was difficult to read his reaction.

“What took ya so long?” Jamie demanded as Mei shouldered the water reservoir of her Endothermic Blaster with a quick word of thanks to ‘Mr. Roadhog.’ Snowball slotted himself comfortably into the top of the reservoir where he could literally watch Mei’s back from a position of safety. Mei reloaded the blaster itself ready for battle and set off back into the fight to help her teammates.

Roadie groaned. “First we had to have an argument about whether we should wait for the military or not.”

“I see.” Jamie was not impressed.

“There’s no time,” Jack barked. “Get everyone together and let’s get out of here. Now.”

Lena blinked over to them and caught the tail end of what Jack had said. “What?” She stared back at him in confusion. “We can’t just _leave_.”

“What are you talking about?” Jack growled at her while Angela set about mending their minor injuries with her Caduceus Staff. “Of course, we can. Everyone get ready to move out!” While they were talking, he started to return fire at the enemy lines.

Jamie chimed in, “We can’t leave now! Look at this mess we’ve caused.” He gestured at the madness all around them. “What about all these people? The queen’s going to kill ‘em!”

Lena took a step towards Jack. “We’ve got to fix this, Jack. We started it by coming here.”

“Its none of our business,” Jack groused at them. “Our objective now is to get the hell out of here.”

“Well, I’m not leaving,” Jamie huffed and crossed his arms over his chest defiantly.

Roadie groaned again. He had detected Jamie’s tell-tale stubborn tone. He decided to turn and let his Scrap Gun fire at a nearby mech who had drawn menacingly close to Winston’s shield while the others argued.

“What!?” Jack sputtered. “You were the one who didn’t even want to go to Junkertown at the start of this!”

“The queen is crazy!” Lena interjected. “She sent the kidnappers after Jamie and she’s been paying Talon for information on us. She thinks we’re here to dethrone her. She’s going to try and kill anyone who stands against her.”

Jack sighed. “All the more reason to get out of here. Quickly.”

“These people just stuck their necks out for us. The queen told them to attack us but they refused. Now the queen is trying to kill them. There are kids here too! We’ve got to do something!” Jamie shouted back over the sound of gunfire.

Jack looked skyward for a moment and said nothing beneath his tactical visor. Lena assumed that he probably had a look of exasperation on his face.

Angela had been listening closely to Lena’s explanation. “Jack, if we can capture the queen and interrogate her, then this mission will not be a failure,” Angela reminded him. She knew he was eager to get his team back to safety, and part of her agreed with that—they had faced enough danger in the last three days as a result of the leadership team’s folly—but she also knew the future of Overwatch rested on this mission. “We can still win this!”

Kat ran over to them at that moment, her shotgun held defensively in her grip. “Jamie! There’s an actual fucking gorilla running around out there! What the hell is going on?” she called to Jamie on approach.

Jack reacted on instinct and raised his weapon to train it on Kat who squeaked and leapt back with both hands raised in surrender, her shotgun dropping forgotten to the floor.

“Whoa! It’s okay!” Jamie cried, throwing himself in between Jack and Kat. “This is Kat. She’s on our side!”

Jack lowered his weapon but didn’t see fit to apologise and Kat stooped to shakily pick up her shotgun once more.

“Kat, this is Angela. Stick with her and she’ll watch over you,” Jamie said, urging Kat towards the other woman who smiled back warmly. Kat nodded and the two set off back into the fray with Lena trailing behind them.

Jack surveyed the battle. There was no clear distinction between who was on which side. All the junkers, including the queen’s guard, looked and dressed very similar. “How are we supposed to know who is on which side?” Jack demanded of Jamie. Maybe he was coming around to the idea of joining the fight, Jamie wondered.

“Erm,” Jamie flustered. “I guess that whoever tries to attack you is probably not on your side.”

“Great,” Jack deadpanned.

Jack looked back at the battlefield once again and assessed the scene before him. He watched as Hana and Winston with Lúcio’s help, pushed a line of mechs back. Lúcio had fitted his hard-light blades back in place now and was much more mobile, darting in and out of the fray before their enemies could strike at him. More Junkertown mechs were rallying to help, however.

“They’ve got too many mechs,” Jack remarked, as he took aim with his Heavy Pulse Rifle once again. “We won’t be able to last against them for much longer.”

“You’ve got mechs too,” a voice said from behind them. Roadie whirled around and trained his weapon on the newcomer, surprised that someone had managed to sneak up on them.

“Easy!” It was a mech pilot, a teenager no less, with cropped black hair. He was still sitting in the cockpit of his mech, but he held up his hands to show he meant no harm as he stood watching them from the other side of Winston’s shield. As a show of goodwill, he climbed out of the cockpit and climbed down to the factory floor to show he was unarmed. “We want to help!” he chirped happily.

Behind him stood another half-dozen mechs, also piloted by youngsters, all looking eager to fight.

“Can you buy us some time?” Jamie asked the younger man. “And help take some of the heat off of our mech pilot?”

“Can do!” the boy replied, clambering back into his mech and leading the rest of the pilots away.

Jamie turned back to Jack, who he could tell was displeased underneath his visor. Years of experience reading Roadie’s body language around his gas mask had taught Jamie to be particularly good at reading a person’s mood and thoughts without needing to see their face.

Jack huffed then raised a hand to his ear piece to activate his commlink and address the other agents. “Team; shoot to disarm only. Protect the non-combatants and apprehend the queen. Let’s get this done as soon as possible.” With that, he took off running towards Winston and Hana’s assault to lend his support.

“Stick by me,” Roadie rasped and Jamie smirked back at him. Finally, the dynamic duo was back together again.

A flash of purple caught Jamie’s attention and drew his gaze upward towards a metal railing on the other side of the Scrapyard. “She’s over there!” Jamie said, pointing the queen out. She was making her way down a set of metal stairs that lead down from the catwalk high above the mayhem to the Scrapyard floor. She reached the bottom and turned to head towards her throne at the back of the arena.

Together, Jamie and Roadie set off towards the stairs to intercept the queen. Guards tried to intercept them as they moved across the Scrapyard, but Jamie kept the path clear with a volley of grenades. They had to dodge around several mechs as they crashed together in the throws of battle. A man ran up behind Roadie, brandishing a piece of metal which he intended to use to strike the larger man over the head. Roadie turned and blocked the blow with his hook effortlessly and aimed his gun at the accoster. The smaller man froze when he caught sight of the snout-like gas mask that covered Roadie’s face.

“Wa- Wait. Ain’t you--?” he stammered.

“Mako Rutledge,” Roadie finished for him.

“Argh!” The man sputtered, backpedalled suddenly, and fled. He dumped the piece of metal on the factory floor as he went. Jamie exchanged a knowing look with Roadie. They set off running again.

They tore past Mei who was single-handedly driving a pack of guards back. They trembled in fear before her.

"Sta- stay back!" one of the guards shouted at her, but Mei was hell-bent on revenge.

"Freeze!" another cried and took aim at her with a rifle. Mei only smiled back.

“If you say so!” she laughed and took aim with her endothermic blaster. Before any of the men could react, they were frosted over with a look of fear frozen on their faces. Snowball hovered beside her and squeaked with delight.

As Roadie and Jamie pushed on towards the throne room, a large figure leapt out at them from seemingly nowhere. Jamie halted mid-step and scrambled backwards behind Roadie's enormous form. Roadie raised his hook to block a blow from the newcomer, but he froze, Scrap Gun half raised, and so did the other man as they seemed to recognise each other.

"Oh, Mako. G'day. How are you?"

Jamie blinked. Before him was Bruce standing with a meat cleaver locked against Roadie's hook. He must have hurried over from the take away shop, because he was still wearing a dirty apron and was breathing heavily. The two older men disengaged upon recognising each other. Bruce shifted his weight off his peg leg and sized Roadie up.

"Long time, no see," Bruce laughed and shook Roadie's hand. Jamie watched the exchange with disbelief. 

"How's the missus?" Roadie asked politely. Jamie huffed.

"Lin's back at the shop," Bruce grumbled. "Told her to lock herself in and wait until everything blew over."

"Are you here to kill us?" Jamie suddenly interjected.

"What? No!" Bruce flustered. "I came to help you lot. That Mick fellow told everyone to come to the Scrapyard to see what was going on..."

Jamie interrupted him, "Then can we do this later!?" Jamie flapped his hands in a shooing motion at Bruce who stumbled, bewildered to one side to allow them to pass.

As they approached the throne room, they saw that Tilda had snatched up something sizeable from the collection of weapons at the side of her throne. She rounded on the two men with an oversized and crudely formed battle axe hefted over one shoulder, one hand resting on the handle. In her other hand, she swung a chain which was connected to the handle of her axe like a bastardized _kusarigama_ weapon. At the end of the chain there was something dark and sharp-looking—a blade of some kind, Jamie assumed—but it was moving too fast to tell.

“Stay back,” Roadie rasped, nodding at the chain. “It’s a poison dart.”

_Poison?_ Jamie wondered. He hated to think what would happen if someone got caught by the swinging barb. How long would they have until they dropped dead? He would need to concentrate of steering clear of it.

The queen was laughing. “So, you remember, Mako?” the queen asked with mock sincerity. “Then you should also remember not to mess with me!” She lunged forward, axe raised, and Roadie fired a shot overhead to keep her back. She only laughed and as she turned, swung the dart towards them again. The two men dove out of the way just in time.

“What the fuck is she talkin’ ‘bout?” Jamie demanded as they righted themselves.

Roadie grunted. “Used to work for her,” he grumbled.

They had to scramble to their feet and reposition as Tilda tried to circle and flank them. Roadie maintained his position firmly between the queen and Jamie.

“I thought you said you're not a junker?” Jamie stared up at Roadie disbelievingly.

“I’m not.” Roadie lifted his hook just in time as Tilda’s poison dart clanged off the metal. “But I was once.”

Jamie's eyes bugged out of his head. Roadie used to live in Junkertown and work for the queen?

“When were you going to tell me about this!?” Jamie demanded. His whole world had just been rocked. He always thought Roadie had been a hermit that lived on the outskirts of the queen’s land. The queen never liked him and Jamie had assumed it was because he wasn’t truly one of her subjects who she could boss around.

“You never asked!” Roadie retorted.

“Are you two done bickering like an old married couple?” Tilda jibed at them. “Or would you like me to remind you why I fired you in the first place, Mako?”

Tilda was as sizable as any man, and clearly talented with a battle axe. There was no fear in her expression, just fierce determination as she swung the chain, the poison dart spinning viciously overheard. Her eyes were training completely on Jamie.

“You should’ve known better than to show your face around here again, Mako,” Tilda growled with a wicked grin.

“But’s he’s wearing a mask…” Jamie pointed out helpfully. "You can't see his face..."

“Shut up!” Roadie barked at him. He was wheezing with the effort of keeping up with Tilda, sweat sliding off his skin as the Scrapyard turned into a hothouse around them. Tilda was just too fast.

Suddenly, she swung the chain forward and the dart was sent flying. Jamie watched as it hurtled through the air as quick as lightning. There was no time to duck or dive out of the way. Jamie’s breath caught in his throat and he raised his arms defensively at the last second before impact. He expected to be struck somewhere more vulnerable like his chest, but the dart dug into Jamie’s prosthesis and pulled hard, jerking him forward with it. Jamie was sent sprawling through the air several metres until he collided unceremoniously with the Scrapyard floor. His frag launcher fell out of his grip in the chaos. He landed hard on his side and the wind was knocked out of his lungs as he recoiled instinctively from the pain.

As Jamie struggled to set himself upright again, Tilda leapt forward and swung her axe downward, aiming towards Jamie’s head. Roadie was lunging forward to block the blow and place himself between her and Jamie. She rose to meet him, locking the blade of her weapon against Roadie’s roughly hewn metal hook. It was the briefest moment, but all Jamie needed to try and recover. He pulled helplessly at the dart imbedded in his metal forearm but it wouldn’t budge. The dart was barbed with serrated edges like claws and was soundly hooked into the metal plates of his right forearm. He was hesitant to put his hand on the dart itself, aware that it was coated in poison, so he tugged futilely at the chain that connected it to her battle axe.

The queen must have seen him struggling as he crouched in the dirt some distance away while she engaged Roadie with her battle axe. Roadie was much larger and stronger than her, but she was swift on her feet and agile with her weapon. The strength she wielded in order to manoeuvre the battle axe as well as she did surprised Roadie. She sidestepped him and tugged viciously on the chain again, trying to pull Jamie closer and within range of her axe.

Unable to free himself of the dart, Jamie loosened the strap which held his prosthesis in place where it looped around the back of his right elbow. The metal forearm was pulled clean free of his body and sailed through the air towards the queen. His final act before the prosthesis came away from his arm stub was to form the metal hand into a fist, which connected soundly with Tilda’s jaw with a sharp ‘crack’ as it completed its trajectory. She howled in rage and ducked away instinctively. His prosthesis fell forgotten to the factory floor. 

Jamie jumped up, eyes wide with surprise. “Yes! I can’t believe that worked!” he laughed.

While Tilda stumbled backwards, Roadie picked up the chain that connected to the dart still imbedded in Jamie’s arm and fired a shot from his Scrap Gun. The chain disintegrated under the hail of shrapnel and nails. Satisfied that the queen couldn’t use the poisoned dart against them anymore, he then pulled roughly on the end of the chain still connected to the dart with all his strength and tore it away from Jamie’s arm.

Jamie hurried over and took the prosthesis from Roadie’s grasp. “Cheers, mate,” he said hurriedly as he tried to fit it around his arm stub again. Roadie wheezed in reply and turned his attention back to Tilda. Jamie tightened the straps which would hold the prothesis in place and tested his arm. The dart had done significant damage and there was a hole with sparking loose wires where Roadie had torn it free. The wrist joint was immobile and two of the fingers had stopped working. Jamie swore but was relieved to find the thumb and trigger finger still worked. He scooped up the frag launcher and fit it back in place, holding it in position as best he could with the thumb and forefinger of his metal hand, and manoeuvring the butt of the weapon to rest snuggly in the crook of his arm again.

Satya was suddenly beside him. “I saw the whole thing. Are you alright?” she cried. Before he could protest, she was weaving hard light over the hole in his prosthesis to conceal the sparking wires. She then bound the weapon closer and more comfortably to his prosthesis by weaving hard-light around his forearm and the frag launcher, ensuring she positioned the hard-light away from any moving parts.

“I’m fine,” he replied, relieved to see he wouldn’t have to worry about holding the weapon in place with his left hand and the feeble grip of his now broken right hand. Satya’s hard-light would hold it securely in place for now and they would be able to repair the damage to his arm later. That is, if they were able to get out of here alive.

Jamie caught a glimpse of the rest of the battle over Satya's shoulder. Things were beginning to wrap up surprisingly fast. Most of the guards had been subdued and were now kneeling in surrender. Winston and Hana had made quick work of the remaining enemy mechs. Jamie watched as the teenage mech pilot he had met before and his friends helped escort the enemy mech pilots towards the gathering of prisoners. Jamie also spotted Mick, surrounded by a band of supporters, ordering the last of the queen's guards to stand down with a sawn-off shotgun. The Overwatch agents had the queen's forces surrounded and were closing in.

The queen seemed to notice that her troops were failing. She swung her axe down towards Roadie again. He rose to meet her but was too slow with his hook. The blade of her axe clanged off the hook and at the last moment, Roadie desperately blocked the blow with his Scrap Gun instead. The barrel of the gun crumpled and Tilda took advantage of his moment of surprise to duck away and made a mad dash towards one side of the Scrapyard where a set of heavy doors stood. Jack and Winston were nearby and seeing that she was trying to retreat, they moved forward to intercept her.

In a panic, Tilda turned and headed towards a set of stairs which would lead her back up towards the catwalk which hung above the Scrapyard. Roadie was not far behind her, a bit slower because of his size but nonetheless determined. Jack and Winston were soon bringing up the rear behind him.

Mei must have seen this because she called out from the factory floor below, “Don’t let her get away! We need to apprehend the culprit for questioning!”

Jamie followed the catwalk with his eyes and saw that it connected with another set of stairs that lead up from across the other side of the arena. “We can block her off if we go this way!” Jamie told Satya, tugging on her hand to pull her in the direction of the other set of stairs. 

They took off running once again across the Scrapyard. Their enemies were largely subdued by this point so no one tried to stop them. Jamie reached the bottom of the stairs before Satya did and launched himself up without any heed for his peg leg on the slippery metal.

“Jamie, wait!” Satya called, trying to keep up.

Jamie finally reached the top of the stairs and looked down the length of the catwalk for Tilda. He spotted her facing the other way, towards Roadie who was advancing from the opposite side. She was trying to back away slowly, battle axe raised defensively. They had her cornered.

Jamie let out chuckle and set off again just as Satya arrived behind him. “Jamie!” she called after him but he was gone again before she could protest.

The dusty catwalk was not really a solid structure. It was suspended by rusted cables from the ceiling and swayed gently as Jamie hurried along. It creaked and groaned under the weight of so many people. He tried to ignore the lurch of his stomach as the catwalk seemed to shift underfoot. He raised his frag launcher ready to fire but paused when he saw Tilda raise her battle axe high, ready to strike a blow against her pursuers.

His breath hitched and for one moment he feared she was about to land a blow on Roadie’s shoulder, but his perception was skewed from this position and he realised Roadie was actually far out of her reach. She swung at them wildly like a cornered animal, stumbling and trying to ward the Overwatch agents off. One of her strikes sheered clean through one of the cables supporting the catwalk and the walkway twisted as the support was destroyed. Tilda stumbled back as a section of the catwalk collapsed and fell away, separating her and Roadie.

Before he could do anything, Jamie had to grab hold of the railing as the entire catwalk shuddered and rocked beneath him. Metal all around him groaned under the strain of shifting weight. Looking up again, he saw his partner in crime stagger as the catwalk shook. Roadie tried to turn back but the section he was standing on, weakened from age, dropped out from beneath him all too suddenly. He would have plummeted with it to the floor below if not for Winston who grabbed hold of the large man and hauled him back to safety just in time.

Overwatch agents and townspeople below dove out of the way as debris fell a distance of what must have been a one-hundred foot drop to the factory floor. Roadie and Winston watched helplessly as Tilda retreated. Roadie's Scrap Gun was ruined and Tila was now outside the reach of his grappling hook.

Tilda laughed as she clambered to safety. Seeing that her pursuers were cut off, she turned to hurry off again. She started when she saw Jamie sprawled out on the catwalk ahead with Satya not far behind, wobbling her way shakily towards him on unsteady feet. A feral look overtook the queen as she lunged towards them. Jamie scrambled upright but his peg leg slipped on the metal and he was hindered by his broken right hand which was now fused with the frag launcher.   
Satya overtook him and rushed towards the queen before she could swing her battle axe at Jamie. She fired shots from her Photon Projector and, when she was within range, locked on with a photon beam so she could drain Tilda’s energy. Tilda shrieked with rage and dove towards Satya. Before Satya could react, Tilda struck out with her axe. With a swift strike, Tilda pinned Satya’s hands against the railing with the axe’s handle and the Photon Projector was sent sailing over the edge. Satya cried out in pain and dropped to one knee. The dart was long gone from the end of her axe, but a few feet of chain that had once connected it still swung from the handle. Tilda stepped around Satya, chain in hand now, pulled the heavy metal links over Satya’s head and across her shoulder. In the blink of an eye, Tilda looped the rest of the chain around Satya’s neck and tugged violently downward until Satya was pulled gasping onto her back, chain drawn tight around her neck.

Jamie leapt forward as Tilda savagely pulled the chain tighter and drove his shoulder into the larger woman, knocking her back. The chain fell out of Tilda’s hands and Satya groped at her restraints with bruised hands, coughing and retching.

Tilda landed on her back, the axe clattered away and out of her reach. Jamie let his frag launcher fire and one of his grenades struck Tilda in the chest. The resulting explosion rocked the catwalk again. Jamie wobbled, almost slipping on his peg leg, and grabbed hold of the railing. Tilda moaned and rolled over.

Jamie fell back towards Satya. “You alright, love?” There was none of the usual humour in his tone. His eyes were searching, desperate, as he helped her pulled the rest of the rusty chain away. She shook her head. Words were beyond her now as her breath came in heavy gasps and wheezes.

Tilda seemed to recover as she pulled herself back to her feet. She hoisted the axe once again and turned her gaze on the two Overwatch agents huddled together. Jamie placed himself instinctively between Tilda and Satya.

“I’ll make you pay, Fawkes,” Tilda rasped at them. She was panting with exhaustion, sweat pouring off her skin and purple strands of hair falling in her eyes. She bared her teeth at them. “Don’t think I won’t make ya pay for what you’ve done today. No _junkrat_ is going to dethrone _me!_ ” She raised her battle axe high, ready to swing down upon them.

Satya reached for Jamie weakly, trying to pull him away from the blow and Jamie backpedalled in an attempted to bodily push Satya out of range.

Tilda’s first strike missed as it clanged against the catwalk. She was soon hefting her weapon up again, slicing towards Jamie and Satya. The blade whistled through the air and ploughed through the railing to their left which fell away to the factory floor below. Sparks flew where the axe connected with metal. Tilda took a step closer. She was becoming more desperate, more frantic with her swings. Her third strike came down inches from Jamie’s peg leg which he pulled out of the way just in time. The blow landed instead on the railing and sliced right through another support cable.

Once again, the catwalk pitched sideways. Tilda stumbled and fell back against some railing that had survived her onslaught. Jamie and Satya rolled to one side. Somewhere behind them, a rusted bolt that connected their section of the catwalk to a support cable snapped and the flooring dropped out from beneath them.

Satya let out a strangled cry and grasped at anything that might save her from the drop. Her arms looped around the back of Jamie’s neck who was half-turned towards her. One side of the catwalk section had fallen away and the platform was now only suspended by the two remaining cables on the other side. Jamie had grabbed hold of an edge with his left hand as the cables creaked and groaned above them. His right hand was useless but he cupped his arm around Satya to try and keep her from falling. Below them, dozens of terrified faces were staring up at them from one-hundred feet below. Satya looked away lest vertigo overcome her.

Tilda seemed to have recovered. She found herself standing on a section of catwalk that had somehow survived and was still level. She looked around briefly before she spotted Jamie and Satya dangling from a gap in the broken catwalk. She righted herself and tried to swing at Jamie and Satya, but they were too far out of the axe’s reach.

Satya’s hands were sore from Tilda’s blow with the axe handle, but she tightened her hold on Jamie as she pressed close against his torso. Jamie grunted, sweaty brow furrowed, as he tried to pull them up with one arm. His muscles strained but he couldn’t lift them both and the end result of his efforts sent them jolting slightly in the air. They could both see Tilda advancing towards them now. Satya let out a fearful cry and trying to maintain her grip around Jamie’s neck and shoulders. She burrowed against his chest and hid her face, hoping to block out this nightmare.

There was a sound like charged energy which whistled over their heads. They both looked up and saw Angela has used her ‘guardian angel’ manoeuvre to fly to their aid. She positioned herself on a level platform furthest from Tilda and, dropping to her knees, reached for Jamie. The cables groaned under the added weight.

Angela tugged at Jamie's wrists with both hands, pulling desperately with all her strength.

“I can’t let go!” Jamie told her. “Get Satya up first!”

Angela realised it made sense to relieve him of Satya’s added weight and then the two of them could pull him up. She grabbed hold of Satya’s forearm and tried to pry her vice-like grip loose from around Jamie’s neck. Satya eventually relinquished her hold with Jamie’s encouragement and took Angela’s hand in one of her own.

Tilda inched closer so she could swing at the agents again. The metal groaned beneath her, as she leveraged herself into a position where she could reach them. With a smirk, she lifted her battle axe ready to strike.

The three agents watched as Tilda drew dangerously closer. Angela looked up and met Tilda’s gaze with alarm. She needed at least one hand free to utilise her Caduceus Blaster but she couldn’t let go of Satya now lest she be plunged to the Scrapyard floor below. Jamie tried one last time to pull himself and Satya up and failing, settled for pushing Satya as best he could towards Angela with his ruined arm.

Tilda watched them and grinned wickedly as she positioned herself, battle axe raised overhead for one final blow, the deathblow. The Overwatch agents were within her range and perfectly vulnerable, hands occupied with pulling or pushing one another to safety, unable to let go. They watched fearfully as Tilda prepared with all her strength to swing the axe towards them and braced themselves, knowing there was no way to avoid the strike.

There was a deafening bellow and Tilda looked behind her towards the source of the noise as something landed on the catwalk behind her. Winston had used his jump pack to reach Tilda’s portion of the walkway. Tilda turned to face him, shifting the axe to a defensive hold. All two-hundred-and-fifty kilograms of raging silverback gorilla propelled towards her and she stumbled as the catwalk lurched violently under his movements. Jamie, Satya and Angela clung desperately to the remains of the catwalk as they dangled perilously. Angela redoubled her efforts to pull Satya up.

The catwalk shook violently beneath her but Tilda reached for something in a pouch at her hip and flung it towards Winston as he advanced on her. Her aim was impeccable, despite her exhaustion. He howled with rage when whatever it was imbedded in his inner arm, burrowed between two plates of armour. Jamie tried to keep his eyes on the action as Satya began to climb with Angela’s help towards safety. It looked like Tilda had thrown some kind of blade at first, but as Jamie watched Winston pull whatever it was free with a painful cry, he realised it was another barbed dart like the one that had once swung from the end of her axe. She must have been carrying a spare with her. Jamie realised with a jolt of alarm that this one was likely coated in poison also.

Blood was seeping through Winston’s armour now. Winston’s body went slack as the dart rolled out of his leathery hand. His eyes rolled up into his head and he dropped, out-cold, onto the catwalk. The Overwatch agents clung tight once again to what remained of their supports as the catwalk jolted again under the weight of the gorilla. Satya had crawled to safety with Angela’s help, but paused to hold tight as the platform shifted beneath her. Tilda laughed triumphantly.

“Winston!” Lena’s terrified voice rang out from somewhere far below. A blue streak of light tore up the stairs and along the catwalk where Lena easily blinked across the gap Tilda had created so she could stand defensively over Winston’s prone form. With a cry of rage, she let her pistols fire at Tilda who stumbled backwards, raising the flat side of her axe as a meagre shield from the onslaught.   
Lena placed herself between Tilda and Winston and let another round of ammunition fly. Tilda stepped back, swinging wildly at Lena to try and keep her back. Her foot slipped over the edge of the platform behind her and she tipped over the edge. Her axe swung through the air and collided with one of the two remaining cables that supported the section where Jamie was still hanging on for dear life. The cable snapped and Jamie plunged into the air below before either Satya or Angela could reach for him.

Jamie flailed and saw the catwalk streaking away and out of his reach in a heartbeat. He braced for impact, although he knew there was no way he could survive the drop.

His descent ended suddenly as it began and the air was forced from his lungs with a resounding “Oof!”

Jamie expected pain, even death, but for some reason, neither came. He dared to open his eyes and saw he had landed on something soft. Arms were braced around him protectively. He looked up into Roadie’s masked face with a sigh of relief. Roadie must have been waiting underneath the catwalk to catch him.

“Thanks, mate,” Jamie said shakily as Roadie set him up-right again on his feet. “Just like o’ them trust exercises!” He managed a weak laugh while Roadie steadied him with a hand on his shoulder.

Nearby, Tilda had also fallen from the catwalk but hadn’t fared comparatively as well as Jamie. She had landed in a pile of discarded rubbish, red dust, and old omnic parts. She rolled out of the heap with a groan. She probably had a few broken bones, but she forced herself to her feet. Her battle axe had been lost in the fall, but she glanced around desperately for some kind of weapon. She spotted some shards of metal nearby and reached for one of them, wild in the eye as she tried to back away from the advancing agents.

“Freeze! Don’t move!” Mei called out, and Snowball sailed over their heads to position himself above Tilda, this time safely out of the queen’s reach. Now rehydrated, he unleashed a torrent of snow which whipped up the factory floor and froze Tilda in an icy shell. The townspeople all around watched on in amazement.

Hana advanced with her weapons raised, Lúcio at her right flank to support her. Jack, who had followed Roadie to the factory floor below the catwalk, also raised his Heavy Pulse Rifle once again and took aim at Tilda. “Stand down!” he barked. “You’re under arrest.”

Tilda immobilized and exhausted, could do nothing under the threat of Hana’s mech. Jack stepped forward and roughly jerked her hands into a position that would allow him to cuff her. Bits of ice fell away under his ministrations. A cry went up from all around them. Jamie looked and saw the townspeople cheering and laughing as Jack cuffed the queen.

Somewhere nearby, Kat and Mick finished herding the last of the queen’s guards together into a group where they were forced to kneel, hands on their heads. A ring of mechs, lead by the teenage mech pilot, surrounded the guards and kept them in place.

Angela glided gently down from the catwalk above to the factory floor and used her Caduceus Staff to heal Tilda’s wounds. The queen would be no use to them with broken bones and Angela knew Jack still wanted to question her.

Jamie started when he felt two arms wrap around him from behind. He turned and found Satya buried against his torso. She looked up at him, her faced streaked with tears. “Are you alright?” she rasped at him. They were both filthy and Jamie knew that would normally displease her but she seemed shaken and reluctant to let him go.

He pulled her close. “Perfectly fine. Barely a scratch, see?” he murmured into her hair and she visibly relaxed.

“Ange, over here,” Jamie called out to their field medic. “Satya’s been hurt.” Angela hurried over to them next and set Satya right with her staff.

“Good as new!” She smiled at Satya, who was examining her hands closely for permanent damage where the queen had struck her before, but found none. She tested her voice and thanked Angela, finding that that too seemed to have been repaired. 

“What about Winston…?” Jamie started to ask.

“I’ve already checked on him,” Angela replied with a tired look. “He’s already coming around. Looks like it was only a knock-out serum on that dart.” She patted Jamie on the shoulder absently before flitting away to check on the rest of the team.

Jamie heaved a sigh of relief. They had done it. They were safe again and their mission objective had been achieved. Roadie let out a booming laugh as the queen struggled and swore at her captors, screaming threats at Jamie and Roadie in particular. "You're nothing!" she screamed at Jamie. "You'll always be _nothing!_ " Roadie just kept laughing.

Mick stepped forward out of the gathering crowd, looking tired and worn from battle, and offered to escort the queen to the cells below the Scrapyard. Jack nodded then turned to check on his team.

“Is everyone alright?” Jack asked. He was doing a quick head count and trying to confirm the team was safe.

“Alright?” Lena asked from somewhere nearby. “ _‘Alright!?’_ You are I are going to have _words_ , Jack Morrison!” Her tone was unmistakably threatening. She fixed Jack with a harsh stare and started marching away.

Mei appeared suddenly beside Jack. “I need a glass of water,” she groaned and trailed after Lena. Satya watched her go.

“I need a shower. Now,” Satya suddenly announced to no one in particular. She looked like she was nearing the end of her ability to tolerate much more of what this day had to throw at her.

“Me too,” Jamie grumbled. They all set of marching towards the Scrapyard’s exit.

Hana, now out of her mech, also approached Jack and sucked in a deep breath before announcing loudly, “This was the best vacation ever!” She then departed in the same direction as her teammates.  

Jack watched them all go with a look of confusion. He then turned to see Lúcio was the last of the strike team who had remained behind in the Scrapyard. He stood calmly, staring at Jack.  

“I had fun,” Lúcio said simply. Jack raised an eyebrow.

“Okay,” Jack replied, slightly confused.

Lúcio looked up at the Scrapyard ceiling. “So how are we supposed to get back up to the dropship?” he asked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: If Junkrat and Roadhog can fall a distance of 100 feet from a factory roof to the floor in their “Going Legit” comic and survive, then Jamie can do so here again and I don’t care what anyone says. 
> 
> PS: Stick around, this isn’t over yet.


	12. Chapter 12

Hana raised her mech's right gun barrel to block a downward swing from the opposing mech. She grunted with the effort, forcing her mech to push back with all its strength.

Locked in a stalemate, the other mech swung at her with a chainsaw where it's arm should have been. With a gasp of surprise, she just barely managed to engage her boosters in time which knocked the other mech back. She put some ground between herself and the other mech pilot, before turning to engage again. She let her micro-missiles fly and the other mech ducked for cover. There was a dip in the centre of the Scrapyard behind the rotating platform and Hana saw her opponent retreat to safety there.

Leaping up onto the rotating platform above with the aid of her boosters, Hana prepared for a surprise attack. She crouched and waited for the platform to rotate until her mech was positioned over the Junkertown mech and then when she was in the perfect position, she pounced. Diving down upon her opponent, she unleashed a round of ammunition. The other mech reached up to swing at her again with the chainsaw.

This was the sight that confronted Kat and Mick as they made their way into the Scrapyard around mid-morning in search of Jamie and his band of unusual friends. Bluey trotted along beside Kat, his ears perking up with interest at the activity before them. The clashing mechs collided again, sending dirt up into the air. Kat and Mick exchanged a look of confusion before a booming voice echoed over the PA system. There was no mistaking who the owner of the voice was.

"Alright, that's enough warm-up. Break it up! Break it up!" Jamie hassled the mech pilots.

Kat watched as the mechs obligingly separated and relocated to the centre of the Scrapyard where they could prepare themselves for the fight proper.

Mick sighed. "Sounds like they're making a day of it," he commented dryly.

Kat could see Hana through the blast shield of her mech, smiling ear-to-ear and positively gleeful at being able to face off with a Junkertown mech. The pilot of the other mech Kat recognised as Scott. He was a skilled mech pilot with short, dark hair that often participated in weekly mech battles. He was very popular among the female fans in particular.

Kat glanced around. "Let's go up to the spectator area," she said, gesturing to a set of stairs that lead up and out of view. It wasn't safe to cross the Scrapyard in the middle of a mech battle, so Mick nodded and followed Kat up the stairs, Bluey trailing behind them.

They soon found themselves standing on a viewing platform where the Overwatch agents had set up a kind of picnic while they watched the mechs battle each other. The Overwatch agents had prime position and they could easily see almost the entire arena from this angle. Kat spotted Lena, Lúcio, and Mei sitting with their legs dangling over the edge of the viewing platform. She also identified Mako, or “Roadie” as he liked to be known, sitting at the rear, observing the mech battle with disinterest. Satya was seated beside him, equally disinterested in the fight, reading a book on her communication pad.

Beside Lena sat the giant two-hundred-and-fifty-kilogram gorilla, who had appeared in the Scrapyard yesterday to aid them against the queen's forces and had been introduced to Kat late yesterday as Winston. They all cheered as the pilots made mock-threatening gestures towards one another with their mechs.

“Hiya!” Lena called out when she saw Kat and Mick approached. “Have a seat!” Lena motioned to the spot between herself and the giant silverback gorilla. Kat was a little apprehensive about Winston. She was still getting her head around the idea that there was a giant gorilla in Junkertown and that he could talk. He apparently was the result of an experiment which advanced his intelligence beyond human levels. He regarded her with a blank expression, but Kat saw Lena was smiling at her encouragingly. Kat smiled back and squeezed between Lena and Winston.

Bluey made a low, growling noise at the huge gorilla, which earned him a cool regard from Winston.

"Cut it out," Kat cautioned the dog. Bluey whined in compliance and after Winston extended a huge hand for the dog to sniff at, he realised there was no danger and was soon licking and jumping all over the huge ape.

"Is that safe?" Kat asked no one in particular, as she pointed at the two mechs in the throes of battle below them.

"They're not using live ammunition," Lena assured her with a smile. "Hana's new friend said he would treat her to a mech battle today. We tagged along so we could watch."

At that moment, Jamie strode into the centre of the arena, the mic cord trailing behind him. The Overwatch agents above cheered and clapped as he approached. He threw his arms wide and announced the contenders into the microphone.

"Ladies and gentlemen! It's the battle of the century! You are about to witness the most anticipated mech battle in Scrapyard history! The winner will emerge victorious; the loser scorned and cast out from society for the rest of his or her days. Are you ready?” He asked the crowd. There was a chorus of affirmative cries in reply.

Jamie turned his attention to Scott’s mech and gestured grandly. “In this corner, the king of procrastination, the lord of layabouts, the sultan of sickies! Ladies and gentlemen, he’s holding up your queue at Centrelink, he's spending his dole payment on beer and tatts. Piloted by one hell of a dropkick; it’s the ‘Bludger!’”

The spectators all cheered and clapped again politely.

"No! No!" Jamie called out to the viewing platforms, waiving his hands irritably and causing the mic to whine. "Boo! 'Boo' him! He's the bad guy!"

Everyone quickly changed their tune to an appropriate number of 'boos' and hisses, though they laughed and cheered along all the same. Scott made a show of playing up the character Jamie had created for him by sneering at the crowd.

"And in this corner; all the way from South Korea, a pro-gamer who plays to win! All time StarCraft champion and she's out for a new high score, ladies and gentlemen.  She's mean, she's keen, she's only nineteen! It's Hana Song!"

Hana laughed and made a display of twisting her mech around to perform an impressive dance for the crowd. "Think you can keep up with me?" she called out to Scott in a challenging tone.

The Overwatch agents cheered and called out supportively to Hana. The mechs squared up again and Jamie counted down from 3 to mark the start of the match. The mechs charged towards each other and the fight was on again.

Mick peered over the edge of the platform and saw Jamie far below, providing spectator commentary as the match went on. He had returned to the area known as the throne room and was lounging rather contemptuously in the queen's throne, feet propped up on the plush upholstery, mic in one hand. Jamie seemed to be putting on an exaggerated Richie Benaud impression. "Ladies and gentlemen, it’s a marvellous day. A marvellous day to waste some Korean tax payer's money. A marvellous day for a day of trying to kill each other with oversized, chainsaw-wielding mechs..."

Jaime continued to provide commentary from the sidelines as the fight progressed. Lúcio and Mei were enthusiastically cheering the mechs on below while they swung their feet over the edge of the viewing platform.

"There's something we need to tell you," Kat said to Lena after a while. "But it would be best if Jamie and Hana were up here too."

Lena nodded. "They shouldn't take too much longer," she said, inclining her head towards the arena below. They sat in comfortable silence for a while until Lena, feeling emboldened, cleared her throat awkwardly and asked Kat something that had been weighing on her mind.

“How did things go this morning?”

Kat’s eyes were fixed on the two mechs below. Her mouth became a thin line. “As well as I could have hoped,” Kat said quietly.

“Is everyone still worried?” Lena asked.

“Yeah,” Kat mumbled.

That morning a town meeting had been called to decide what to do in the wake of their queen’s dethronement. The last of the queen’s supporters had been ejected from Junkertown overnight. The people who remained found themselves in a state of uncertainty. Without their queen, people were worried they’d be made to leave or that the government was coming to arrest them all. They had no leader to protect them now. Some were angry.

The meeting had taken place in one of the quieter mess halls with just a few prominent community leaders in attendance. It hadn’t gone well. Mostly people were just shouting at each other about what they thought the townspeople should do. Some had even suggested this whole disaster was a conspiracy orchestrated by Jamison Fawkes to extract some kind of revenge on the queen. Although everyone agreed life would be easier without Matilda on the throne, her absence made the future uncertain. Many were suspicious of Overwatch’s involvement and so Kat had asked the agents to stay far away while the meeting took place.

Kat and Mick had tried their best to keep everyone calm. Ultimately, everyone begrudgingly agreed to wait until they had a chance to meet with a contact of Jack Morrison’s who worked for the Commonwealth to see what the government’s plans were for Junkertown before any further action would be taken. Everyone had left the meeting with a feeling of unease. Some were still angry. Some had started packing their things.

Lena nodded as Kat relayed the goings on that morning.

“Everyone is still wary of us, aren’t they?” Lena asked.

Kat frowned. “Unfortunately, some say we shouldn’t trust Overwatch,” Kat said, then rolled her eyes. “Most of them didn’t even know what Overwatch _was_ until today. But a lot o’ them were saying they thought it was alright how Angela used her staff to help heal everyone the other day.”

It was true Angela had immediately gone to work following the battle in the Scrapyard tending to the injured townspeople. It had taken hardly any time at all with her Caduceus Staff. For most of the junkers, it was the first time an outsider had come to their aid like that. Everyone was in awe of the angelic woman who literally flitted to their rescue. It had gone a long way to garner some trust between the townspeople and the Overwatch team.

But Kat knew that Overwatch could not stay here forever. She also knew they wanted to let the townspeople make their own decisions about the future of Junkertown. Kat herself was fearful of what the future held. But she would need to worry about that another day. She had come to divulge something important to the Overwatch agents.

The battle continued for almost an hour. Much of the ‘battle’ as it turns out was grandiose gesturing and play-fighting. It would actually be quite costly to go all-out and damage the mechs irreparably. Finally, Scott seemed to submit to Hana’s superior mech and signalled his surrender graciously. The Overwatch agents clapped and cheered as Hana emerged from her mech victorious, arms raised and calling out to the other agents with glee. Scott also emerged from his mech and walked over to shake her hand with a grin.

Jamie strode over and lifted Hana’s arm. “Ladies and gentlemen! I give you your champion!”

Everyone cheered and called out to Hana once more. Hana looked so pleased about the whole thing, she couldn’t stop grinning from ear to ear.

“If you’re done,” Winston called out in a flat tone, once the din had died down. “There’s something that needs to be discussed up here.”

Scott excused himself, saying he needed to take a shower, while Jamie and Hana quickly made their way up to the viewing platform. When they arrived, Jamie spotted Kat and Mick and grinned at the two. “Everything alright?” he asked, shaking Mick’s hand.

“Not quite,” Mick replied with a grimace. “That’s why we’re here.”

Kat took a deep breath before addressing the Overwatch agents. “The queen got out.”

“What!?” everyone cried in unison. All of the gathered agents looked up at her with alarm.

“What do you mean she _got out_?” Lena demanded to know.

Kat shrugged and Mick looked nonplussed. “Dunno,” Mick replied. He was lounging against a wall, ankles crossed, and looking perfectly calm. “Went to check on her this morning. Door was wide open.”

The agents exchanged looks of shock.

“But _how?_ ” Lena asked with no small amount of exasperation. Her face was quickly beginning to colour with anger. “How could she _possibly_ get out?”

Mick shrugged. “Maybe she knew a secret way out. Maybe she paid someone off to let her out.”

Kat nodded. “Either way, she’s long gone by now,” she said.

“Good riddance,” Mick said with a smirk. He yawned and stretched a crick in his neck. “Let the bandits have her.”

"Aw!” Jamie whined, scuffing his foot along the floor in annoyance. “I told em to make as much noise as possible because I knew it would bother old queenie downstairs," he said, jerking a thumb at the mechs resting on the Scrapyard floor below.

Lena, however, looked surprisingly angry. “So that’s it? She’s just _gone?_ ”

Winston tried to calm her with a pat on her shoulder. “It’s alright, Lena—” he began.

“No!” she cried, whirling on him. “We worked so hard! This whole mission almost cost us our lives, it was almost a complete write off. When we captured the queen, it was at least a chance to interrogate someone who might know where Talon is. It was our one chance to get the stolen data back. And now she’s just _gone_?”

Everyone stared back at Lena, surprised by her outburst, but also sharing her feelings of dejection. All their hard work had been for nothing.

“I’m sorry, Lena,” Kat said quietly.

Lena was red in the face. She said nothing but turned and marched away towards the stairs that lead down from the platform. Everyone watched her go in silence.

Mick had watched the whole exchange in bewilderment, not quite sure why the little pommy girl was suddenly so angry. And what was a ‘Talon’ anyway?

“What’s wrong with her?” Mick asked Jamie as they watched Lena march away. She had made her way down to the Scrapyard floor now and was making her way towards the exit.

Jamie shook his head dismissively. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “She’s just upset because, well, we came all the way to Oz to get some info on this mob called Talon. The queen had been talkin’ with ‘em. Now she’s gone and there’s no way to track ‘em down now. Coming here was a big waste of time.” Jamie shrugged his shoulders and turned his attention back to Lena, who’s retreating form had just disappeared out of sight.

Mick looked thoughtful. “Well, it it’ll help, I can get ya a copy of the queen’s call logs?”

Jamie’s head whipped around to look at Mick with surprise. “What?”

“Yeah, it’s an old comm system but it would hold recordings of what was said and show the signal location of the person was that she was chattin’ with,” Mick went on.

Overhearing what Mick had said, Winston turned to look at the young man hopefully. “Are you certain of this?” he asked.

“That would be significantly helpful in locating the Talon operative the queen was speaking with,” Satya said with growing realisation.

“There’s still a chance! If we can track them down, we can possibly recover the stolen data on the Overwatch agents and their families…” Mei chimed in, nodding enthusiastically.

“No worries, I’ll go and get it now,” Mick said, perfectly content.

Jamie was staring at Mick like he’d just grown two heads. “Mick, you’ve saved my neck again,” Jamie laughed and clapped the taller man on the shoulder. “What can I do to repay ya, mate?”

“Never mind,” Mick smiled benignly. “Happy to help. Just make sure you buy me that beer, eh?” He added with a wink before trotting away to fetch the call logs for them.

“Mate, I’ll buy you a whole slab of stubbies if it will make ya happy!” Jamie called after him with a laugh. They could hear Mick laughing too as he disappeared from view.

As soon as Mick was out of sight, Jamie turned his attention to Satya with a look of amazement. “Well, how about that? It wasn’t a waste of time after all!” he laughed.

Satya smiled at Jamie ruefully. It was true in a way. “I’m pleased to hear it,” Satya replied.

Winston was examining a message that had just come through on his pager. “Jamie, Jack wants you back at the ship,” he said.

“Already?” Jamie asked as everyone gathered their things and prepared to leave the Scrapyard. He glanced at Kat who was looking nervous at Winston’s announcement.

Winston nodded. “He says our guest is almost here.”

 

 

\--

 

 

Jamie watched the helicopter descend and come to a rest not too far from the dropship. The red dust of the surrounding earth together with a few bits of rubbish were whipped up into a flurry as the rotating blades spun fervently then began to slow.

He shifted his weight off his peg leg with a huff of impatience. He felt awkward and out of place suddenly in the situation, standing next to Jack and Angela as they waited for the government official to emerge. They were waiting in the shade of the dropship which had recently relocated from the dome above the Scrapyard to a patch of bare earth just outside the Junkertown gates.

Jamie didn’t know what to expect today. What would this official think? Would the Junkers be made to leave as everyone feared?

To Jamie’s surprise, a small woman in a navy-blue jacket and pencil skirt emerged, briefcase in hand. She smiled widely when she spotted Jack and trotted over in her heels.

“G’day, Jack,” she said over the din of the helicopter’s dying engine once she was within earshot. “Long time, no see!”

Jack extended his hand and shook hers. Together they all turned and headed towards the shade of the main gates to Junkertown so they could retreat from the rising heat.

“Where’s your assistant?” Jack asked. He had been expecting both Ankita and her small entourage of admin staff.

“Got cold feet,” Ankita explained. “She said she’d wait in the helicopter. Said she was too scared to come out.”

Jamie looked and saw a mousy girl sitting in the passenger seat of the helicopter, watching him fearfully. She ducked out of sight as Jamie made eye contact which made him laugh.

“Ankita, you remember Dr. Angela Ziegler?” Jack said motioning to the Swiss woman on his left.

Ankita shook Angela’s hand too and beamed that same smile at her again. “G’day, Ange!”

Angela smiled benignly and offered her own greeting.

Jack turned to Jamie next. “And this is Jamison,” he said. “Jamison, this is Ankita Cosgrove.”

Ankita offered her hand. Jamie reached out and shook it. “Nice to meet y—,” she began to say, then she seemed to get a good look at Jamie’s face and paused. “Wait. ‘Jamison?’ As in, Jamison _Fawkes?_ ”

Jamie had been fearing exactly this would happen. He looked away from Ankita, suddenly embarrassed.

“Um... yeah.”

Ankita was gaping at him. She turned her attention on Jack again and fixed the older man with a stern look.

“You didn’t tell me about this,” Ankita said to Jack in an accusatory tone.

Jack shrugged. “Surely you can understand why I didn’t mention it before.”

“What is he doing here?” Ankita asked, eyeing Jamie warily.

“He works for Overwatch,” Jack replied.

Ankita whipped around to stare at Jack. “What?”

“Don’t talk about me like I’m not here,” Jamie growled, anger rising. Angela patted him reassuringly on the shoulder.

Ankita staring at Jamie. Suddenly she looked around, as through trying to catch sight of something. “But where’s the other one… your partner… Where’s Mako Rutledge?” Ankita said, addressing Jamie again.

“He also works for Overwatch,” Jack said in the same even tone. “He’s inside.” Jack gestured to the dropship nearby.

Ankita looked nervous. “Last I heard of you two was a sighting in Europe. Didn’t even know you were back in Australia,” she said to Jamie. Jamie tried to avoid her gaze.

“Jamie was instrumental in our mission’s success,” Jack went on.

“Don’t say it like that...” Jamie tried to say. “It was all of us...”

Ankita seemed to mull it over. “So, you’re a field agent now, huh?”

Jamie nodded.

Ankita laughed and shot Jack a sidelong wry smile. “You sneaky bastard,” she crooned with humour.

Jack remained expressionless as always. “Ankita used to work for Overwatch,” he explained to Angela and Jamie. Jamie looked surprised.

“Back in the day!” Ankita laughed. They had made their way through the huge gates now and Ankita was staring all around in wonder. Opposite the main entrance, the queen’s decree had been completely painted over. Someone had written over the now blank surface in crude red letters:  _Ding-dong, the wicked witch is dead!_

“Was never a field agent though,” Ankita went on. She winked at Jamie. “Came back to Oz to work for the government after the original Overwatch was disbanded.”

“Ankita helped negotiate the terms of our mission in the exclusion zone with the Australian government,” Jack continued. They all set off up a set of stairs, heading towards an observation deck which would show them a view of Junkertown.

“Is this your first visit to Junkertown, Ms. Cosgrove?” Angela asked politely.

“That’s right,” Ankita smiled, taking in the bright colours and the fascinating examples of reengineering all around. “Never been allowed in before.”

They had climbed several floors until they were standing on a battlement-like platform set into the top off one of the fortified walls. Ankita set her briefcase down and rested her elbows against some railing so she could look out over Junkertown and catch her breath.

“Well, would you look at that…” Ankita was quiet for a while as she took in the view of the uneven rooftops before them and beyond the large domed structure which housed the Scrapyard. “Its impressive, that’s for sure. How many people live here?”

“Just under a thousand,” Jamie answered. Ankita nodded her understanding.

Jamie was twitching nervously. He couldn’t help himself, he blurted out, “What will happen now? Will everyone have to leave Junkertown?”

Ankita turned to look at him, surprised by the question. Her expression was soft. “There’s going to be a lot of public debate about what should happen now. There’s been a lot of media attention around Junkertown in the last 24 hours. My office has been inundated by the press.” She turned her attention to Jack. “I got your message that the queen escaped. So, it’s true?”

Jack nodded in confirmation. He had relayed the message ahead to Ankita as soon as Jamie had told him earlier that day.

Ankita heaved a sigh and went on, “Given the sudden public interest, we’re expecting the Commonwealth to officially acknowledge that people are continuing to live in the exclusion zone against government regulations.”

“But will they be made to leave?” Jamie asked. He seemed anxious to know her answer.  

“No one knows just yet…” Ankita began.

Jamie, suddenly angry, cut her off. “These people have nowhere else to go. Some of them have only ever known Junkertown as their home. What are they supposed to do?”

“Jamie, please...” Angela tried to sooth him.

Jamie shrugged her off. “No! You can’t just come in here and tell us all what to do. No one cared about us when the omnium blew up. We were all left to die and now all of sudden you want to show up and tell us what to do?” Jamie’s tone was low and dangerous as he spoke.

Ankita was quiet for some time, watching as a flock of white parrots took to the wing over the Scrapyard dome and disappeared out of sight. “Personally, I think it’s time the Commonwealth stopped trying to shove people of their homeland,” she said finally. “They made a mistake when they tried to give away aboriginal land to the omnics which wasn’t theirs to give in the first place. I expect as a result of this incident, they will need to officially acknowledge that the Arrernte people are the official custodians of this land now.” She stood straight and turned to look at Jamie. “At any rate, the biggest deciding factor will be if the area is deemed safe for human habitation. Radiation is a considerable threat to the safety of the locals.”

Jamie was starting to work himself into a rage. “You can’t just kick us out--!”

“We’ll need to review the data that your agents collected on your recent endeavour into the region before we know for certain,” Ankita said firmly. “The government will make an official decision about whether it is safe to live here. Perhaps we can use the collected data to find a way for the locals to continue to live here safely. If a way _can_ be found, I suppose the locals will go back to living alongside the Arrernte people like they did before the Crisis.”

“And if it isn’t considered safe?” Angela interjected.

Ankita fell into a thoughtful silence again. Finally, she said quietly, “When the nuclear reactor blew in Chernobyl in 1986, the impact on human life and the local terrain was catastrophic. Thousands of people died from health problems related to the nuclear fallout and the local region was declared unfit for human habitation for twenty thousand years. People either refused to leave or couldn’t leave their homes in the Ukrainian exclusion zone following the Chernobyl disaster too. What happened in Australia was similar but on a smaller scale. The Omnic Core that blew up was not as large as the Chernobyl power plant. We’re looking at a similar impact on human life, however, we are expecting the dangers of living on Arrernte land to be minor by comparison. We’ll have to play that by ear.”

Jack looked uneasy. He chanced a glance at Jamie who still appeared to be angry. “I don’t want the people here to suffer as a result of our mission,” he said. “If they want to stay, they shouldn’t be made to leave.”

“But they should be given all the facts so they can make an informed decision themselves,” Angela added.

Ankita nodded. “My recommendation to my superiors will be to allow the people to continue to live here, and send relief supplies to help support the local’s health.”

The Overwatch agents seemed to heave a sigh of relief. Jamie also visibly relax. “Can I hold ya to that?” he asked Ankita.

Ankita smiled brokenly. “It’s a very complicated issue, one that will likely be up for a lot of debate for years to come. But that will be my recommendation. Some people will say that the junkers should be moved, but like I said, this country has got to stop stealing other people’s land.”

“The most important thing is that these people receive medical treatment and the health care they need,” Angela cut in.

“I agree,” Ankita said, crossing her arms and leaning against the railing casually. “Let me tell you, it’s going to be a lot easier to send relief now that the queen isn’t around to stop us from ‘interfering.’” She used air quotes to indicate it wasn’t her own choice of words.

“Any idea where she might have gone?” Jack asked Jamie suddenly, to which Jamie only responded with a shrug.

“The federal police have been notified and are trying to track her down as we speak,” Ankita interjected. “She has several attempted murder charges laid against her at the moment. I must say, removing her from power was an unexpected bonus. We never thought something like that would come about as a result of Overwatch activity in the area. I have to thank you for that, Jack. You’ve really helped us out.”

“Thank, _him_?” Jamie looked incredulous. “ _We_ did all the work!”

“Jamie!” Angela admonished him.

“Well we did!” Jamie griped.

Ankita actually laughed. “And I very much appreciate it, Mr. Fawkes. We’d like to express our gratitude. The Australian government will be pledging support to further Overwatch’s cause with the U.N.” Ankita rose from the railing where she had been leaning and straightened her skirt. “And, of course, if you should ever need our cooperation again, you will have my full support.”

Jack reached out and shook Ankita’s hand again. “I’d appreciate it if you could keep it quiet that Fawkes and Rutledge are working for Overwatch at the moment,” Jack said to Ankita. “They’re still ‘on the run’ so to speak. We’re trying to keep this quiet from the U.N. At least for now.”

Ankita laughed. “Some things never change, eh? Say no more, Jack. Your secret is safe with me.” She winked and bent to pick up her briefcase. She straightened and headed for the stairs, nudging Jamie playfully in the ribs as she passed. “Us Aussies gotta look out for each other!” she whispered.

As they descended back down into the town below, Jack thanked her Ankita waved him off. Jamie told Ankita that he thought she was alright for a suit, which made her laugh.

Ankita had to be part of a few more meetings with the townspeople before she made her way back to Canberra, so the Overwatch agents escorted her to one of the mess halls where the meetings were to take place, then retreated to the cool of the dropship. Jamie felt a lot better after meeting with Ankita. Perhaps things were going to work out after all for the people of Junkertown.  

 

\--

 

Satya had noticed how quiet Jamie had been since the showdown in the Scrapyard. He seemed distant, conducting himself with more restraint, which was most definitely out of character for him. Usually he let every errant thought or funny quip that ran through his head come tumbling impulsively out. But he had told her earlier that day that he “had some thinking to do.” He had disappeared after that and she’d barely seen him all day.

 _Perhaps the last few days have given him a shock?_ she wondered.  She would need to remember to urge him to have a check-up with Angela soon. But something told her it was more than post-mission stress. She knew something was weighing on him and they would need to talk about it soon.

It had been two days since their confrontation with Tilda in the Scrapyard. Everyone apart from Jamie seemed to be in good spirits and preparations were being made to prepare the ship for their return flight to Gibraltar. Their ETD was scheduled for around dusk the following day. Everyone was in a flurry preparing their equipment, helping with pre-flight checks, and making arrangements with the locals to restock before the flight. Originally, they were going to make a pit-stop at one of the military bases some several hundred kilometres away to make all these preparations before the main flight to Gibraltar, but Jack had pulled a few strings and had arranged for a supply drop to their current location. They would be able to depart directly from Junkertown. Satya wasn’t sure why Jack wanted to prolong their stay here, but she supposed he had his reasons.

She sighed and returned her attention to her work. She was helping Hana, Lúcio and Angela set out some chairs in the main Briefing Room. It was late afternoon by this point and the rest of the Overwatch agents and flight crew were starting to filter into the room.

Satya’s thoughts returned to her boyfriend. She had suspected something was wrong when he called them all to a meeting for which they were now preparing. Satya could feel her left leg jiggering in part with impatience, but also, another part of her was nervous.

When she had heard that Jamie wanted everyone together so he could make an announcement, she went cold with dread. Her first assumption was that he was going to tell them he was staying behind to help Junkertown rebuild. Was that what he had gone off to think about that day? She would understand, of course, if that was what he chose to do. Satya guessed that Junkertown was the only home Jamie had ever known. It was in even worse shape now; with no leader and the people terrified the government was about to evict them, they needed someone to protect them now and help them build their society again.

At that moment, Roadie appeared at the door and shuffled into the room. Trailing behind him, like an ever-present duckling, was Jamie. He looked nervous too. He stood to one side of the group, speaking in hushed tones with Roadie.

Satya took a deep breath. She would be sad, heartbroken even if he chose to stay. But surely, he would speak to her first before making such an announcement? He would, wouldn’t he?

She waited as the last few team members trailed into the dropship’s common room and tried to keep herself distracted by helping Angela hand out some cups of tea for everyone. She then took a seat herself and resigned herself to pushing back the cuticles of her nails nervously.

Finally, everyone was present.

“Alright, Jamie. What was it you wanted to tell us?” Winston asked amicably and took a sip of his tea.

Jamie said something quietly to Roadie, who nodded and Jamie approached the digital briefing table at the front of the room. The scarred pink flesh of his arm stub stood out in contrast to the rest of his tanned, freckled skin. His prosthetic arm was clutched loosely in his left hand. He had told her he intended to get straight to repairing it as soon as they got back to Gibraltar.

“Cheers everybody. I’ll try not to take up too much of your time. I know you’re all busy with final prep,” Jamie began. He came to stand by the briefing table where he set his prosthesis down. From behind the table he bent and retrieved a backpack which he set down on the table next to the arm.

“And tired,” Hana added. She was sitting next to Lúcio, his arm slung across her shoulders.

“Let’s get to it then,” Jamie said. Satya took a deep breath and braced herself.

Jamie upended the contents of his bag onto the table. Out came a small device that looked like a computer hard drive with loose wires sticking out. Satya realised with a start that it was the hardware Jamie had traded for with the man they had met in the bush a few days ago, the man called Dale. Satya watched Jamie curiously. What was he up to?

“I wanted to bring you all together so I could tell you all something very important.” Jamie’s voice had taken on a sombre tone.

 _This is it_ , Satya thought and reminded herself to breathe calmly. Her insides were turning into a rampant storm of emotions. _If he says he is leaving, you must be supportive and understanding and—_

“I want to tell you all about the treasure I found here three years ago.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Centrelink is like the social services department in Australia and they handle welfare or 'dole' payments.
> 
> If you want to know who Richie Benaud is (AKA the greatest cricket commentator in history), watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tcAOBbDtfY


	13. Chapter 13

“Fo- for real?” Lúcio stuttered. “you’re actually going to tell us what the treasure is?”

Hana, eyes wide, eagerly shuffled a little more forward in her seat in preparation for Jamie’s announcement.

Jamie shrugged. “Seems as good a time as any,” he said simply.

Satya jaw was practically on the floor. All this build-up, all this secrecy, and he was just going to tell them all, right here, right now? She chanced a quick glance around the room. The leadership team, particularly Jack, were all watching Jamie intently. They were clearly just as surprised that this was happening as the rest of the team.

“Well, can we hurry this up?” McCree’s voice broke the silence over the satellite commlink. “It’s the ass-crack of dawn here and I wanna go back to bed.” He punctuated his moaning with a noisy yawn. There was a screen above Jamie’s head which was projecting video capture from the commlink. Satya could see McCree and a smattering of other staff members spread-out around the Gibraltar base Briefing Room, looking tired.

Zarya’s spoke up from her position sitting opposite McCree. “You better’ve made us get up early for a good reason, skinny man,” Zarya growled in a distinct warning tone at Jamie.

Much of the Overwatch agents back at Gibraltar had been asked to be ‘present’ for this announcement via commlink, differences in time zones notwithstanding. It seemed no one back at Gibraltar was good at mornings.

“I too am unaccustomed to being woken from my recharging state so early in the day,” Lynx-17’s said from his seat on the other end of the commlink. The omnic hacker in partnership with Zarya were a new addition to the Overwatch team in recent months.

“All right, all right. Let’s get this over with,” Jamie said, making a calming gesture towards the gathered agents with his hand.

Satya watched as Jamie reached for his broken prosthetic arm. Deftly, he unclipped a metal plate on the forearm. The plate came away and he pulled something free from the hidden compartment inside. Satya fully expected to see gold, or enormous jewels to emerge from the arm's cavity but she was quite surprised when she saw neither.

It appeared he had pulled out a small plastic zip-lock baggie, worn and discoloured with age. Everyone watched his movements closely, occasionally exchanging looks of confusion.

Jamie opened the baggie, upending its contents onto the table. Out spilled a small black device which Satya thought looked like a memory stick or USB. It bounced twice and came to rest on the briefing table.

Jamie plucked it from the table’s surface and held it up. "Welp, this is it fellas," he said. “This here is the reason I’ve been on the run for three years.”

He was greeted with underwhelmed silence.

"That's it?" Hana asked suddenly, looking confused. "That's what the queen was trying to kill us for? _Outdated tech?_ "

"What is it exactly?" Lúcio ventured to ask.

"I found it in the old omnium when I was scrappin' one day years ago,” Jamie explained. He took a deep breath and regarded the small item in his hand coolly. “There was a control centre up there which I broke into. I was fairly sure there would be something worth selling in there. Busted the door open; nothing a stick of dynamite couldn't sort out. Inside, I found this."

He placed the device down on the table. Everyone followed the motion with their eyes.

"I didn't know what it was at first, but after people kept trying to come after me to try and get it, that's when I knew I had something big on my hands. After a while, I sort of pieced it all together what it was."

Jamie took a deep breath. "It's a God program.”

Winston dropped the teacup he was holding with an audible smash and took a deep breath. "You can't be serious..." he muttered, almost to himself.

Jamie was completely calm. "It’s dormant. It can't hurt anybody," he reassured them. "But after all the trouble its earned me, I realise now how dangerous it could be in the wrong hands."

Winston rubbed his face, like he was trying to wake himself from a dream. "Jamie... do you know what this means?"

"What?" Hana asked, glancing over at Winston. “I don’t get it. What does it mean?"

"It’s a God A.I. They were used to control the omniums and the production of omnics during the Omnic Crisis," Winston explained. "Each omnium had one. Overwatch was formerly tasked with locating and containing these God programs but the ones that survived were all turned over to the U.N. They were supposed to have all been quarantined or destroyed..."

"The God A.I. from the Australian omnium was presumed destroyed following the catastrophic explosion of the omnic core," Jack interjected. "But it was never officially confirmed as lost after the area surrounding the omnium was made into an exclusion zone."

Athena joined the conversation. "God A.I. programs are extremely dangerous. They are highly intelligent and have the potential to duplicate themselves to create more God programs. In the wrong hands, they could be used to commence a new Omnic Crisis."

"Mother of God..." McCree's voice came in over the satellite link once more. "And you were just carrying it around with you everywhere, Junk-Boy?"

Jamie shrugged. "I don't want it no more," Jamie explained. "It’s more trouble than its worth. If Overwatch can study it, and use it to prevent another Omnic Crisis, then you all can have it.”

“You’re giving it to us?” Jack asked, astonished.

Jamie nodded. “Roadie and I have both agreed it will be safer in Overwatch’s hands.”

Satya turned her gaze on the larger man in question, still seated in the corner of the room. Roadie was motionless but he nodded almost imperceptibly in agreement with Jamie. Satya understood that Jamie and Roadie had formed a partnership long ago based on a mutual promise of financial gain from the profits of this treasure. Had Roadie agreed to give it up so readily?

"This is a very dangerous object," Mei cut in. She tapped her chin thoughtfully. “What should we do with it?"

Jack approached the table where Jamie’s treasure lay. “May I?” he asked, and Jamie indicated that he didn’t mind with a wave of his hand.

Jack picked up the device in his hand and examined it for a moment. “We were never allowed to study them before,” he said absently. “The U.N. confiscated all surviving God programs. This could be our first chance to learn from one directly.”

Jack placed it inside an orange glowing circle on the digital briefing table. “Athena, can you scan for abnormalities please. But only if it’s safe to do so.”

“Certainly,” Athena answered. The orange circle of light changed to blue while Athena commenced the scan. After a moment, she said, “No abnormalities or corruption detected. The specimen is in excellent condition. The A.I. is indeed dormant and perfectly contained.”

“Can you communicate with him or her?” Winston asked.

“It would be too dangerous for myself to attempt,” Athena said calmly. “The risk of the A.I. attempting to corrupt and take over my systems is at 85.29 percent probability. Such an outcome would be devastating for Overwatch’s operations, if you don’t mind me saying so.”

“Perhaps my services may be of assistance?” Lynx-17 chimed in. “It may be possible that I can extract some information from the device.” Satya watched Zarya scowl and grunt disapprovingly at Lynx-17 through the video capture.

“ _May_ be possible?” Jack asked.

“I won’t deny that there are risks involved, but the benefits of what we could learn are immeasurable,” Lynx-17 continued. “We may discover a way to prevent any future Crises and preserve world peace.”

“But what if the A.I. tries to take you over?” Zarya asked suddenly. “It could use your body like a vessel and use it take over the world.”

Lynx-17 made a noise that sounded like a chuckle. “Do I detect a note of concern for my safety, Zarya?”

Zarya snorted. “I would be glad to finally be rid of you, _robot_. My concern is that we risk unleashing another Omnic Crisis.”

“The risk is much lower if I perform the extraction instead of Athena,” Lynx-17 replied. “I can create a contained environment where we can study the program safely and there will be no chance of escape. Even in the event of a containment breach, we can quarantine the A.I. program within my own systems if necessary to prevent further spread.”

“But that would be at the expense of your own life,” Mei pointed out.

“Keep in mind that were discussing hypothetical situations here. We’ll need to do more research before we completely understand what we’re dealing with,” Lynx-17 replied.

“It will take time for us to prepare for such an extraction,” Jack murmured. “I want this done safely with minimal risk.”

“Understood,” Lynx-17 replied. “I’ll begin the preparations.”

“I will help you,” Athena said brightly. “We will also need to build some kind of interface to help us make contact.”

Lynx-17 was holding up a tablet computer and examining some data from Athena’s scan being fed through the satellite link. “Yes, it’s composed physically of outdated hardware now. It may prove difficult to find the necessary parts to assist our extraction.”

“This might help,” Jamie said, breaking his silence. He picked up the metal hard drive he had acquired from Dale earlier. “It’s a core drive. I recognised it from the control centre where I found the God program. It plugs in like this.” He demonstrated where the memory stick which contained the God program could be inserted into a slot in the core drive.

Lúcio looked like he was about to lose his cool. “ _That’s_ what that thing was?” he demanded incredulously.

“We thought you were going to make a bomb out of it or something,” Lena added, surprised.

Jamie looked offended. “ _Please_ ,” he said with mock irritation. “Am I so one-dimensional to you lot?”

Everyone shuffled awkwardly, avoiding his gaze.

Jack turned his attention on Jamie who was still standing by the briefing table. “Jamie, we may be able to use the data we extract to save countless lives,” Jack said. “Thank you for giving it to us.”

Jamie actually looked like a weight had come off his shoulders. He heaved a sigh and said, finally, “No worries.”

Jack reached out and shook Jamie’s good hand. Jamie accepted the gesture a little awkwardly. He seemed hesitant, like there had been a monumental shift inside him in the last few minutes and he was now unsure of himself. Satya watched him, standing still and looking entirely out of place. A waif of a boy in ruddy clothes standing amidst professional field agents on a sleek combat aircraft.

The formality of the situation seemed to dissipate as agents stood to chat animatedly with one another about the treasure and started to amble out of the room, back towards their respective duties. Jack advised them all to rest up before they all disappeared out of the room, reminding them that they were scheduled to depart for Gibraltar the next day. He then hurried off, perhaps to perform more scans of Jamie’s ‘treasure.’

Satya stood and made her way over to Jamie.

Mei also came to stand beside him and offered a warm smile. "Thank you, Jamie," she said. "I'm glad you told us."

Jamie shuffled a bit on the spot, looking at the ground. “It seemed like the right time," he said finally. Jamie smiled crookedly back at Mei. Their friendship had had a rocky start but Satya was pleased to see their connection had been strengthened following the events of the last few days.

"How do you feel?" Satya asked. He had been a little more fidgety than usual today.

Jamie's gaze whipped up to meet hers, surprised by her question. "Fine, fine," he said reassuringly. "A little different, I guess."

"Because of the treasure...?" she ventured.

"Yeah," he said. He paused to think for a moment, then added, "I feel like a weight's been lifted off me. But it’s a good feeling."

Satya smiled "You must be relieved."

"In a way," he said. "But for the longest time, I wanted to keep it all to myself. Like it made me special or something to have this big secret. Now it’s all out there. I'm not sure how to feel now."

She looped her arm around his left elbow and let her palm rest again his, fingers intertwined. "You're still the same Jamie. I'm glad you told us. And that you trusted us enough to tell us."

A sly smile slid across his face. He pulled her closer. "Of course, darl'." He grinned at her.

"And you'll always be special to me," she added quietly.

"Stop," he grinned again. "You're makin' me blush, love!" A blush had indeed broken out on his cheeks.

Lúcio, Hana and Lena also came over to stand with them.

“Nice one, Junk’” Hana said with a smile and clapped Jamie on the shoulder. “I was worried your ‘treasure’ was going to be something lame, but it ended up being pretty cool!”

“I was tired of carrying it around everywhere like a burden,” Jamie said with a shrug. “And I guess that the last couple of days have made me realise that no treasure is worth losing my friends over.”

Lena coughed like she was trying to cover up something that sounded like a sob. She turned away.

Lúcio smiled. "Don't worry about it, brother. You didn't know what was going to go down in Junkertown.”

“I'm still really sorry you guys all got dragged into this,” Jamie said sheepishly.

“No problem,” Hana laughed. “What's a little life-threatening bodily harm between friends?”

“We made it out safely, didn't we?” Mei added. “We always do.”

“Yeah, great team play” Hana cried, jumping up and down with excitement. “Best vacation ever! Can we do it again some time?”

“Yes, but I think we’ll go somewhere different on our next vacation. Maybe somewhere with a little less life-threatening bodily harm,” Mei laughed and the others joined in.

They were interrupted by another loud yawn from McCree over the satellite link which was apparently still live. “Hello? Can I go back to bed now?”

 

\--

 

It had been another hot day as the team sought refuge in the airconditioned dropship just outside Junkertown. It had been a full day since Jamie’s announcement and there had been much work to do making preparations for their departure to Gibraltar that evening. Jack had been locked away in his quarters, almost in constant contact with Lynx-17 back at base as they planned their extraction of the God program. Everyone else was busy with their own duties. Angela herself had busied herself by finishing a complete inventory of her medical supplies, checking everything was accounted for prior to their flight.

As the heat of the day finally dropped off, and the shadows started to draw longer, Angela decided she would take a moment to step outside and catch some fresh air. She had some free time now that her preparations were complete and it had reached a comfortable temperature outside. Perhaps she could enjoy some open space before their 19-hour trip back to base.  

As Angela headed towards the dropship’s hatch, she spotted the Hana and Lúcio standing near the hatch controls, seemingly bickering about something.

“Are you heading out too?” Angela asked on approach.

Hana whirled and looked up at Angela. “Oh! Hey, Doc,” she said. “Here! Help me convince Lúcio to let me go hunting for echidnas!”

Lúcio groaned. “Hana, we’re leaving soon! If you get lost in the bush, what are we supposed to do? Do you want us to leave without you?” he implored her.

Angela hid a smile behind her hand. When had Lúcio become so over protective?

“Just a few minutes!” Hana whined. “I got to see everything except an echidna on this trip. There must be one nearby!”

“A walk would be nice,” Angela said benignly. “I’ll accompany you, Hana, if you wish.” She hadn’t had much of a chance to see any wildlife on this mission. It would be nice to see what Hana might find, if anything.

Hana regarded Lúcio triumphantly. “See?” she said haughtily. “Doctor Ziegler thinks it’s fine!”

Lúcio huffed. “Well, I’m coming too!” Lúcio said stubbornly.

Just then, Angela turned and watched as the hatch activated of its own accord and revealed two figures waiting below the dropship entrance. Angela recognised Jamie and Satya standing on the red earth and watched as they headed up the ramp into the cool of the dropship. They appeared flushed and weary from their excursion. Well, at least Angela assumed it was because of the excursion.

“Where have you two been?” she asked conversationally.

“Just up the graveyard,” Jamie replied, jerking a thumb over his shoulder.

“Oh,” Angela replied, the warm smile slipping off her face. She hadn’t expected him to be somewhere like that at all.

“Aw,” Hana piped up having overheard the exchange. “Who died?” Lúcio, who was still standing beside her, looked at her with alarm and elbowed her in the ribs to let her know it was a sensitive question. She let out an audible “oof” and shot him a bewildered look.

Jamie didn’t miss a beat. “The whole fuckin’ lot o’ them, love!” he said as he shot Hana a comical look of exaggerated confusion which made her giggle.

“Jamie wanted to show me where his parents were buried,” Satya said evenly. There was no hint of emotion in her voice. She could have been stating a simple fact like what they were going to have for dinner that night.

“Yeah, and they loved her,” Jamie grinned. “Didn’t have a bad word to say about her.”

Angela fixed him with a wry smile. “You’re both late getting back,” she pointed out.

“Well, Satya wanted to see this waterfall where me and some others used to go swimming,” Jamie explained. “So, we stopped off there to cool down.” Jamie gave Satya a sidelong glance.

Angela noticed Satya blush and look away. She had a feeling she knew why the two of them were so late and appeared so flustered. She raised an eyebrow at them both disbelievingly but didn’t question Jamie further.

Jack came bustling past them at that point, looking harried and distracted. He paused briefly when he spotted Jamie and looked him up-and-down.

“ _Fawkes_ ,” he said evenly.

“ _Morrison_.” Jamie returned the same calculating look.

Angela watched the exchange and sighed. Despite the enormously monumental gesture of Jamie sharing his treasure with the Overwatch team, there was still tension in the air about some of the decisions the leadership team had made regarding this particular mission. Angela had a feeling Jack had dropped a few pegs in Jamie’s estimate. He was still not happy about being sent into Junkertown without his bodyguard and she doubted Jamie was going to let Jack live it down anytime soon.

At the same time, Jack was indebted to Jamie. Jack was surly at the best of times but seemed even more on edge as of late following the revelation of Jamie’s treasure. Perhaps he felt a little kowtowed considering how many risks he’d taken with this mission, and how many almost didn’t pay off. He had Jamie and his Junkertown mates to thank for what admittedly he had to consider to be a largely successful mission, one that had almost ended in failure. However, Jack didn’t like being indebted to anyone, much less a younger man who was able to pull off missions without any formal military training. She supposed it would take some time for the two men to put this disaster of a mission behind them.

Jack drew near to Jamie, his expression perfectly measured. “That’s an interesting shade of lip-gloss, Jamie,” he said suddenly as he passed the younger man.

Jamie’s eyes widened and he immediately began frantically scrubbing at his mouth with the hem of his shirt as though he was trying to remove all evidence of a transgression. Satya, who had been standing beside him seemed to flush and even deeper shade of embarrassment. Jack rolled his eyes at the pair and continued on his way, heading deeper into the ship.

“Oh, and there’s someone here to see you,” Jack said over his shoulder as he left.

“See _me_? What? Really?” Jamie asked but Jack was already out of earshot.

Jamie shot Angela a questioning look and tried to look past her into the dropship. Angela pointed in the direction Jack had indicated and smiled encouragingly at Jamie. She was aware there were some guests on board. They had been invited to wait for Jamie in one of the common areas while the rest of the crew continued with their prep. Angela watched as Jamie departed with Satya trailing behind, her countenance framed by curiosity.

Jamie and Satya left the others and headed through to the one of the cabin rooms. Rounding a bulkhead, they came across Kat and Mick sitting around a booth-like table seemingly waiting patiently for the pair to arrive. Squeezed between them on the upholstered seats was Raymond with a half-drunk glass of orange juice perched in front of him. Someone must have made tea for the guests because two teacups sat in front of Kat and Mick.

The three of them turned their gaze on Jamie and Satya as they came into the room. “G’day, Jamie.” Mick beamed at them. “Alright, Sat’?” He looked like he was right at home lounging on the plush upholstery.

Satya acknowledged their guests with a nod. She was indeed feeling ‘alright’ after their ordeal in the Scrapyard a few days ago. She had showered herself three times that day after getting back to the dropship. With a change of clean clothes too, and she felt like a new woman. She must have looked different now to how she appeared to the junkers days earlier in stained, ruddy clothing. They seemed surprised by her prim and proper appearance now.

Jamie returned Mick’s smile. “G’day,” he replied, a little surprised to see them sitting right there on the dropship like that.

“We heard you was leavin’ today,” Mick said.

“Yeah, yeah,” Jamie said awkwardly. Satya frowned. Perhaps it was strange for him to be leaving his friends behind in this place which was supposedly his home to go fight for world peace. She guessed no one from Junkertown had ever done anything of that nature before Jamie and Roadie.

“Raymond said he wanted to say goodbye,” Kat said, gesturing to the small boy. Raymond suddenly seemed quite shy and hid his face with a downward glance.

“Right-o,” Jamie replied. He looked at the boy sandwiched between the two adults. “Raymond, was it? Heard you and the other junkrats were a big help to my team the other day. Dunno what woulda happened to me if they hadn’t snuck that cherry bomb into my pocket.” Jamie shared a smirk with Raymond, who looked quite pleased.

“No worries,” Raymond said quietly, but smiled all the same.

“How’s about I make it up to you?” Jamie said with a mischievous grin. “This here is a pretty big ship, eh? How’d you like to see the cockpit? I’ll let you press any buttons you like!”

“Yeah?” Raymond asked, eyes lighting up.

“Yeah! You don’t mind do you, Athena?” Jamie asked aloud.

“Not at all,” Athena replied casually and all three seated at the table almost leapt out of their seats in alarm.

“Wh- who said that!?” Kat asked staring around for the source of Athena’s disembodied voice.

“I did,” Athena replied in the same neutral tone. “My name is Athena. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Satya stifled a giggle as the three junkers continued to wildly stare around, trying to find the owner of the voice.

“She’s our A.I. system. She’s all around and always listening,” Jamie explained with a laugh.

“That’s weird, mate,” Mick exclaimed, looking a little shaken. “Really weird.”

“Raymond, would you like to see the cockpit now?” Athena asked.

All the enthusiasm had drained out of Raymond. He looked a little scared now and kept glancing around, looking for Athena. Everything they had been told about robotics and A.I. Was that they were extremely dangerous. With the queen gone, perhaps the junkers could begin to learn that technology could be safe. “Um...” Raymond mumbled noncommittally.

“I’ll go with you,” Jamie offered with a reassuring smile.

Raymond got up and followed Jamie out of the room.

Satya was left alone with Kat and Mick who shuffled along the booth to allow her a seat.

Mick swore. “Christ alive. I just lost ten years off my life. That ‘Athena’ scared me!” he exclaimed.

“Athena would never hurt a soul,” Satya reassured him. “I don’t think she physically can.”

Kat laughed. “I don’t think I can get used to the idea of Jamie living in a metal box somewhere out there surrounded by all this advanced technology, using it to save the world.”

Satya knew Kat was speaking in hyperbole so she smiled at the other woman ruefully. “Gibraltar is quite pleasant, especially in the Spring,” Satya said. “It’s like a second home now.”

“Sounds better than the old metal box he used to live in,” Mick said and jerked a thumb in the general direction of the nearby omnium.

“Do you like working for Overwatch, Satya?” Kat asked.

Satya considered the question. She had been working for Overwatch for over a year now. It was certainly starkly different to her experience working for the Vishkar Corporation where she had been closely monitored and her movements restricted for years. Her life was still structured here, much to her relief, but she also found that she had a lot more freedom. She was free to build and create as she pleased. The friends she had made here, she felt she could trust absolutely, which was something she wasn’t sure she could say of her colleagues back at Vishkar. Would anyone back at Vishkar put their life on the line for her like her Overwatch comrades would? She remembered her conversation with the queen high above the Scrapyard the other day. She had told the queen as much, that Vishkar would come for her and fight for her. But how certain was she of this?

Satya sighed. “It is more than acceptable. I enjoy the work and my colleagues are nothing less than professional. I have been able to live harmoniously with most of them,” she said calmly.

Kat nodded. “And its where you met, Jamie. Right?”

“That is correct,” Satya said evenly, without missing a beat.

“Mmm-hmm,” Kat murmured and exchanged a glance with Mick. After a pause, she leaned in closer to Satya and asked quietly, “I hope you don’t mind me asking but, what do you see in Jamie?”

Satya looked up at Kat, surprised. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She had been asked a variation of this question many times since she started dating Jamie. People often focussed on their differences and assumed theirs to be irreconcilable. Few understood, or didn’t want to understand, the wealth of things she and Jamie had in common.

“Sorry,” Kat said hurriedly. “I shouldn’t ask but you’re so...” she gestured about, searching for the right word. “...lovely! And he’s so... so... Jamie.”

Kat looked to Mick for help.

Mick was lazily resting one cheek against the palm of his hand, elbows propped against the table. He was apparently uninterested in the conversation.

Satya had to pause to consider the question again. How could she describe something so complicated as her love for this man? How could she describe their shared love of building and engineering? That she had never had someone so attentive to her needs and safety before? The fact that neither of them were neurotypical, and that they were often underestimated or misunderstood as a result? Their shared experiences in the latter’s regard was what had drawn her to him, after she had gotten past her initial repulsion at his unorthodox methodology and poor personal hygiene (she had since convinced him to take better care in that regard). He was protective, he was loyal, he was kind. How could Satya explain in simple terms all that she felt for this scruffy Australian man?

“He makes me laugh,” Satya said simply in reply to Kat’s question.

Kat’s expression was blank as she leaned back. She seemed to accept Satya’s explanation without further comment.

Satya considered the two junkers sitting opposite her. “Have you spoken with Jack yet? I believe he wanted to speak with the two of you before we departed.”

“Yeah, yeah, we did,” Mick replied. “He said ‘thank you.’ That’s part of why we came over; ‘cause he wanted to talk with us.”

“I’m sure he appreciates your assistance,” Satya said. “If it weren’t for you two and Raymond, my teammates and I might not be alive right now.”

Kat tucked a loose strand of wayward dark blonde hair behind one ear and jerked her shoulders into an awkward shrug. “It was no bother,” she said, suddenly shy.

“We put you in a difficult position, Kat. Having to choose between Junkertown and Jamie wasn’t fair on you,” Satya said, shifting her gaze to the other woman.

Kat sighed. “I was angry at him for leaving, but I also used to pray he’d never come back. I knew that if he did, it wouldn’t be pretty. But when I became a scout, I was terrified of him returning because it meant I was supposed to shoot him.”

Satya remembered Kat standing on the bank of that small creek a few days ago, trembling and fearful in the knowledge of her obligation to kill Jamie. Satya nodded slowly in understanding. “I understand what you risked to save us,” Satya went on in her usual even tone. “You could have been killed too. And you barely knew who we were; just that we were friends of Jamie’s. I appreciate you risking your lives to save some perfect strangers.”

Kat and Mick said nothing in thoughtful silence for a moment. Finally, Mick broke the silence and said, “That’s what we do here. We look out for each other.”

“Well, at least for your mates anyway,” Kat added and shared a smile with Mick.

They chatted idly for a few more minutes until Raymond and Jamie both came bounding back into the room.

“I pushed so many buttons!” Raymond exclaimed.

“Yeah and then Athena engaged party mode!” Jamie cried, equally excited.

“And streamers and confetti came out!” Raymond added.

“Alright, alright. That’s enough excitement for one day,” Mick said as he and Kat got to their feet. “It’s about time we choof off before we wear out our welcome.”

“Aw!” Raymond moaned but followed the adults as they started to move towards the dropship’s hatch so they could disembark.

“But we were having fun!” Jamie groaned dramatically.

“As a reminder,” Athena chimed in. “The dropship is scheduled to depart at 1900 hours.”

“We only have an hour to make our final preparations for the journey, Jamie,” Satya reminded him.

Jamie pouted but said nothing. Raymond also looked disappointed. He seemed to be thinking hard about something, mouth set in a grim line of consternation. “Do you think I could be in Overwatch one day?” he asked suddenly.

Jamie glanced down at Raymond, surprised, and reached out to ruffle Raymond’s loose curly hair endearingly. “No worries, mate. You can be anything you want!”

“If they let this loser in, anyone can probably join,” Mick said, jerking a thumb at Jamie. “I might join up too!” Raymond laughed.

“Oi!” Jamie cried, but laughed as well because he knew Mick was only teasing.

As they made their way out of the room, Jamie asked the other two junkers conversationally, “So, what’s the plan? Choose a new queen?”

Kat scrunched up her face like the though had left a bad taste in her mouth. “I don’t think so. I’m thinking of something more along the lines of a constitutional democracy. An _elected_ leader. What do you think?” she asked with a sidelong smile.

Jamie laughed. “We’ll see how that turns out,” he replied churlishly.

“It’s a start,” Mick added. “Maybe then we can negotiate the terms of opening Junkertown up again to the wider community with the government.”

Kat went on, “Some people will be against it unless we can guarantee their safety. Some have criminal records…”

“ _No…!_ ” Jamie said in mock surprise, hand over his heart as though shocked by the revelation. Kat shoved him to make him shut up.

Mick laughed before saying, “Junkertown was a sanctuary to people who didn’t want to go to jail. We’ll have to come up with some kind of solution for them. I guess it depends on the nature of their crimes…”

“With luck, there will be some pardons. The last thirty years have been desperate times and the government sent no relief following the Core’s explosion. Surely some thievery will be understandable,” Kat said quietly.

Jamie rolled his eyes. “Something tells me the feds won’t see it that way,” he groused. Mick elbowed him in the ribs playfully. They all laughed together and moved on.

They made their way through the dropship in reasonable silence until they came to pass by the crew’s quarters. Jamie paused mid-step by the door to the men’s dorm, head snapping up to look at Kat. “Oh, I almost forgot something! Wait here!”

He jogged over to a door and ducked inside momentarily. He emerged again a moment later with a wad of folded black fabric in his hands. Kat realised with a start that it was the hoodie she had loaned to Jamie the other day. It smelled of soap, like it had been freshly laundered.

“Here ya go,” Jamie said, offering it to her. “Not a single rip or hole, as promised. Thanks again, mate.”

Kat accepted her ex-boyfriend’s hoodie slowly, holding it out in front of her so she could cast her eyes over the familiar faded logo on the back, the too-long sleeves and the stretched-out neckline. Mick was standing over her shoulder, watching her closely.

“You can keep it if you want,” Kat said quietly and handed it back to Jamie. Mick cracked a smile.

“Really?” Jamie asked, stunned.

“I don’t need it anymore,” Kat replied. Her voice was soft and thoughtful.

Jamie scratched at the back of his head, unsure what to do with Kat’s strange gift. Although it was lost on Jamie, Satya noticed the way Mick shifted a little closer to Kat and rested a hand supportively on her shoulder. Satya caught the quick glance they shared and the subtle pink hue which appeared around Kat’s cheeks and ears. She decided she would explain it all to Jamie later.

As they disembarked, Raymond spotted a bunch of kids waiting for him in the shade of the dropship and ran over to them. Some of the kids looked noticeably relieved to see Raymond emerge safely from the ship, but they were soon laughing and chasing each other around in no time.

There were more figures also standing in the shade nearby. Jamie spotted Roadie among them, standing nearest with his back to Jamie and Satya. He turned as they approached to reveal Bruce and Lin standing behind him in the shade of the dropship.

Lin’s eyes came to rest on Jamie and waved him over, beaming her usual brilliant smile at him. Bruce’s bulky frame loomed over her shoulder. He was sporting his usual grumpy expression.

Jamie was surprised to see them. He’d never received so many visitors and well-wishers in one day before. He hobbled over on the uneven ground.

“ _Nǐ hǎo_ , Jamie,” Lin smiled warmly at him.

“G’day,” Jamie said in greeting. Bruce grunted in reply.

“We were just saying goodbye to Mako,” Lin explained. “We heard you were leaving soon.”

“Yeah. In about an hour,” Jamie replied, scratching at the back of his head again nervously.

“Oh.” Lin looked disappointed. “I was hoping you could both stay longer,” she said, looking between Roadie and Jamie. “It would be nice to have a proper catch-up...”

Jamie frowned apologetically. “Our ETD is 1900 hours this evening once we've had time to refuel and restock. It’s a 19-hour flight back to Gibraltar.”

Lin frowned back at Jamie. “So, you can't stay for tea?"

“Sorry, Lin. We've only got enough time for final prep and then we're off.”

"Oh," Lin said again. She smiled sadly at him. “Well, here, take this with you. I made pork buns for you and Mako." She handed over a large container swaddled in cloth to keep the contents warm.

Jamie accepted them. “Cheers, Lin,” he said. He was going to miss her. She had always been kind to him, and a beacon of positivity when he was growing up in Junkertown.

Bruce finally broke his silence. “Lin wanted to come say goodbye.” He avoided Jamie’s eyes as he said this.

“What about the shop?” Jamie asked looking towards Junkertown’s high fortified walls nearby. Surely at this hour the shop should be buzzing with customers.

“It can wait,” Bruce replied gruffly.

“Will you come back soon?” Lin asked brightly, looking between Jamie and Roadie, the larger of the two shifted uncomfortably.

Jamie considered her question. He had once thought he would never come back here again. He had once thought there was nothing left for him here. Was that still the case? Maybe it would be nice to at least come visit every now and again.

Jamie felt Satya at his side. Kat and Mick were also standing nearby. Kat was watching Jamie, waiting for his answer.

“Yeah, yeah,” Jamie said eventually, smiling back at Lin. “We gotta have that proper catch up, don’t we?”

Roadie nodded in agreement with a grunt of acknowledgement. Lin smiled and reached out so she could pull Jamie into a hug.

“Goodbye, Jamie,” she said. “ _Bàibài_. Take care.” Jamie returned the gesture with his good arm. He spotted her sad expression when she pulled back. She wiped at her eyes.

“Eat something!” she said suddenly in a chiding tone. “You’re too skinny! Come back soon so I can cook something for you!”

Jamie laughed. “Will do,” he said.

Bruce reached out and shook Roadie’s hand and then Jamie’s.

Jamie turned and found Kat looking hesitant. She stepped forward and hugged him too. “Bye,” she said quickly, disengaging and going to stand by Lin.

Jamie shook hands with Mick too. “Good luck,” Mick said simply.

Roadie waved goodbye as the gathered junkers began to turn to head back towards the omnium. At the last moment, Raymond hurried over and shook Jamie’s hand, and feeling emboldened, Roadie’s too. Jamie shot him one last cheeky grin before he dashed away.

Lin helped corral the junkrats together—they stopped what they were doing instantly at her word and her word alone—and behaved themselves as she lead them away. Jamie stood with Roadie and watched as the group disappeared from view. Satya gave Jamie a squeeze around the middle and he turned to smile down at her. The hard set of his shoulders was not lost on her, nor the almost longing look he shot after the retreating forms of his friends. She returned his smile then excused herself to go make her final prep before take-off and left the two men alone.

 

\--

 

It was some time later that Jamie found Roadie sitting in the shade of the dropship. He was polishing his hook and fine tuning the Scrap Gun which had taken a few heavy blows during the battle the other day. A small battery-operated lamp was resting beside him, creating a source of light as he bent over his work. The day was fading fast, but the sky burned a bright orange colour, setting the dark omnium nearby silhouetted against the sky.

Jamie joined him in amicable silence and took at seat. He had brought his own frag launcher so he could give it a good clean and polish as he did after every mission.

“Why you sitting out here by yerself?” Jamie asked finally as he got to work.

“Fresh air,” Roadie wheezed. It wouldn’t be long now until they departed. It was his last chance to get some fresh air before being sealed in the dropship for the 19 hours flight.

“Are you sure it’s not ‘cause you’re gonna miss the old joint?” Jamie asked wryly, nodding towards the omnium before them.

Jamie earned a snort of disapproval from the older man. “As if,” Roadie replied. Jamie laughed.

They worked in silence for some time until Jamie asked quietly, “You’re not sore about the ‘treasure’ thing at all, are ya?”

Roadie heaved a sigh. “Like I said, it’ll be safer in Overwatch’s hands.”

Jamie fiddled quietly with the frag launched. “But the money…”

“Overwatch pays well enough. Plus there’s that other stash of ours from all those years on the run,” Roadie rasped at him.

Jamie’s face brightened. “Oh, yeah! I almost forgot about that!” He suddenly burst out laughing. “Remember that plan I had to offer it all to old queenie and rig the trolley with explosives?” He laughed again. “That was a good one!”

“It would never have worked,” Roadie growled at him. “I tried to tell ya…”

“Oi! It would _so_ have worked!” Jamie was indignant.

Roadie only groaned in reply.

“Glad we didn’t blow it up though,” Jamie went on. He seemed to be thinking hard about something. “I reckon I know what I’m gonna do with my share.”

“What?”

“Never you mind.”

“ _What?_ ”

Roadie’s tone had become more insistent. He could sense that Jamie was up to something again, which was usually a bad thing.

“Nothing!” Jamie said in a tone that lead Roadie to believe he was probably lying. “It’s just that I might… I dunno… give it away or something. Do something nice with it. Like Robin Hood.”

Roadie turned to stare at the younger man. “What are you on about?” he demanded to know.

“You know,” Jamie said, avoiding his gaze, rubbing hard at the frag launcher with the polishing cloth. “Steal from the rich and give to the needy.”

Roadie stared at him. His hands had stilled, his work forgotten, as he watched Jamie silently.    
Jamie huffed. “Look you can do what ya want with yours. I’m just saying, I’m giving mine away.”

“To who?” Roadie asked.

“Charity,” Jamie retorted, without looking up from his work.

“ _Who?_ ” Roadie demanded, more forcefully.

“Them little kids,” Jamie blurted out, annoyed by the intensity of Roadie’s questioning. He finally met Roadie’s gaze. “They ain’t got a cent to their name.”

Roadie digested what Jamie had said for a moment. “You’re giving it to the junkrats?”

Jamie said nothing and simply nodded.

Roadie sat in incredulous silence until he suddenly burst out laughing. His belly shook with each booming guffaw that came rattling out of his chest.

“What’s so funny?” Jamie growled at him.

“Well now I look like a right arse, don’t I?” Roadie said with amusement.  

“I said you can do what you want with yours,” Jamie muttered.

“But I ain’t gonna. You’re right, them kids deserve it. Maybe they can make something better out of this place.” Roadie looking up at the omnium once more, silhouetted against the darkening sky. There was the hum of machinery and night life wafting on the breeze. Some of the windows in the houses built into the omnium walls were illuminated with light. _Life goes on_ , Roadie thought to himself.

“But what about your share?” Jamie asked quietly.

“Like I said, Overwatch pays plenty just fine,” Roadie muttered and got back to scrubbing his scrap gun.

They worked in silence until Roadie asked quietly, “What does Satya think about all this?”

Jamie said nothing and offered only a shrug in reply. Roadie assumed correctly that he hadn’t discussed any of his financial plans with his girlfriend yet.

“You being nice to her?” Roadie asked. There was an edge to his tone that bordered on threatening.

“ _Yes_ ,” Jamie said, eyes wide as he stared back at Roadie, offended.

“Be nice to her,” Roadie reminded him.

“I _am_ nice!”

“And don’t fuck it up,” he went on as though Jamie had said nothing. He finished by fixing Jamie with a pointed look. “’Cause if I hear you been botherin’ her…”

Jamie scoffed. “Whose bodyguard are you s’pposed to be anyway?”

“She’s a nice girl,” Roadie added. “Don’t want you scarin’ her off.”

Jamie scowled and tuned his back on Roadie. They continued to work in silence, unaware how much time had passed, until finally Satya came looking for them. Darkness had almost completely fallen now. Jamie watched as the shadows parted to reveal her, the light from the lamp sliding over her hourglass figure. He tried to catch himself before she found him staring, but he couldn’t help it. _She’s beautiful_ , he thought to himself. She smiled on approach and carefully tucked a few loose strands of hair away behind her ear.

“Jack says we’re leaving now,” she said to the two men.

Roadie started packing up instantly at that. Jamie also starting to cram the components of his frag launcher into a duffle back. Both of them had forgotten to keep track of the time as they sat outside, enjoying the warm evening as it encroached.

“Alright, we’re coming,” Jamie replied hurriedly.

She watched Jamie and Roadie pack up their equipment silence for a few moments. She chewed her lip thoughtfully. She had something that she wanted to say to Jamie. She didn’t mind that Roadie was there, in fact, it was best that he knew as well. But she didn’t want to make a formal announcement to the rest of the team just yet and this was her last chance to speak to them alone before they boarded their long journey back to Gibraltar.

“There’s something else,” she said in a tone that made the two men pause in the middle of their work to look up at her. She took a deep breath. “I’ve decided to leave Vishkar. I don’t want to be any part of that anymore.”

Jamie was quiet, eyes wide as he watched her, then nodded slowly.

She went on, “After coming here—I’m not sure—I just don’t want to become the kind of person who shapes order from chaos at the expense of everyone’s freedom.”

The two men said nothing and stared at her.

Satya shrugged. “I just wanted you to know.”

Jamie was watching her closely. “Okay,” he said after a long pause. He kept his expression as neutral as possible but Satya noticed the subtle upward quirk at the corner of his mouth which indicated he was pleased. “You know we’ll support ya, yeah?” He motioned to him and Roadie.

Roadie nodded his agreement.

Satya was secretly quite relieved. She expelled a sigh she hadn’t realised she had been holding in. “I know,” she said. “It’s going to be difficult...”

“We’ll make sure they treat ya proper, and let ya keep yer arm and all. They’ll have all of Junkertown to deal with too. We’ll give ‘em a right scare if they try to stop ya.” Jamie met her gaze with fierce determination.

Satya laughed. “I’m sure you will.”

The men resumed their packing up, but she shared a grateful smile with Jamie before he looked away to his work. Jamie was grinning ear-to-ear with a look of pure giddiness as he collected the last of his items. Satya turned her gaze upward towards the sky. Small, glinting specks of starlight were starting to dot the sky like pinpricks. She wondered if the Korean satellite was still somewhere up there but she supposed it must have moved on by now. She exhaled a breath and watched as the sky deepened in colour, the air cooling around them. She looked back at the junkers with a sense of relief.

 “Come on. Let’s go home,” she said, sparing a glance towards the monolithic silhouette of Junkertown as the last fading remnants of light illuminated it from behind. Suddenly, she shook her head as though to dismiss what she had just said. “I mean, let’s get back to _headquarters_ ,” she corrected herself. She offered Jamie a hand up.

Jamie seemed to ponder something for a moment before taking the hand offered to him. He stood with her help. “Nah,” he said, drawing himself up to his full height. He smiled down at her. “Let’s go home.”

She smiled back at him as he extended an arm to rest across her shoulders. Roadie joined them and the three set of walking back towards the dropship’s hatch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Read the epilogue. Do it.


	14. Epilogue

It was unseasonably cold.

Tilda was seated at the bar of a seedy pub near Kings Cross in Sydney, trying to console herself with bourbon and coke. The place had a punk rock vibe so her Mohawk and lip piercing was not out of place, but she kept the hood of her jumper up all the same to better disguise herself. It was late, almost 3am, but Tilda remained unmoving staring down into her glass. Most of the other patrons had left for the night and the barman was eying her warily, perhaps hoping she’d hurry up and pay her tab then make her way home as it was almost closing time.

Thing was, she didn’t have a home to go to no more.

It was raining hard outside. Perhaps that was keeping most of the patrons away, but the smell of petrichor hung in the air despite the remnants of beer and cigarettes all around her.

Tilda took another forlorn sip of her drink. Nearby a gaggle of drunk youths were loudly trying to rouse their friends, some of whom were nearly passed out, so they could move on to the next bar.

She wondered if she herself bar-hopped until morning, she could avoid sleeping on the streets for another night. The only problem was she was starting to run low on cash. Her private accounts were depleting quickly following her exodus from Junkertown—she’d spent a fair amount just hitchhiking to Sydney—and drinking at pubs was an expensive habit.

She needed a way out of Australia. The police were looking for her and she was on the run, unless she could get to relative safety outside the country, but she’d need a fake passport before she could do that. She’d need more money for that too...

She thought about her mounds of treasure back at Junkertown. Her fists clenched with anger. There was no way to get to it now, if it hadn’t been divided up already. She would make that Jamison Fawkes pay for what he had cost her.

She felt a presence at her right shoulder. A man had taken a seat at the bar next to her. He signalled to the barman with a gloved hand, who approached, looking annoyed to have another customer walk in so close to closing. The barman’s expression altered instantly to apprehension when he caught sight of the strange hooded face. The newcomer paid no mind and murmured his order. The barman scurried away and returned a moment later with two glasses and a bottle of tequila which he poured out then made himself scarce.

The stranger nudged a glass towards Tilda with his elbow and left his own untouched on the bar.

Surprised, Tilda looked up and saw the man was dressed in black, a hood drawn up to conceal most of his face. Despite the rain, his coat was spotless and absent of any hint of dampness. He turned slightly to acknowledge her and she caught sight of the masked face just beneath the hood.

“Ay, I know you right?” She slurred a little. Was it her fourth or fifth drink that night?

He was silent, staring straight ahead, slightly hunched to hide his face better from the noisy youths behind them.

“How did you find me?” She asked in a lilting tone. She took her shot of tequila in one gulp and reached to pour herself another.

After a pause, he said, “You’re all over the news right now.” He nodded at a television screen above their heads. A news reader was reading off the day’s headlines. The sound was switched off but Tilda saw the news ticker below scrolling more news along the bottom of the screen, including, _“Junkertown Queen Still On The Run. Wanted For Questioning.”_

“Doesn’t answer the question,” Tilda replied.

Tilda had been expecting retaliation after the last message she sent to her Talon contact, but perhaps not quite so soon. She had received a brief communication earlier that night:

_MY COLLEAGUE WANTS TO MEET WITH YOU. THERE’S SOMETHING WE NEED TO DISCUSS. PLEASE SEND YOUR LOCATION. -S_

Tilda had sent only a brief reply:

_FUCK OFF._

She supposed they hadn’t got the hint.

“We triangulated on your location after your last message,” he offered in reply.

It had been a while since she had lived on the outside of Junkertown. Technology had certainly moved on in recent years and it was taking some getting used to. She hadn’t realised her hacker contact would be able to find her so quickly through a single text message.

After a pause, she asked, “Are you here to kill me?” She kept her tone even.

“No,” he replied simply.

Tilda shrugged and finished her tequila.

“Did you get the ‘treasure’?” he asked.

Tilda suddenly slammed her hand down on the bar so hard that the youths behind them fell silent. The resulting ‘bang’ from the motion echoed around the room. The man seated beside her didn’t even flinch. After a moment, the youths collected themselves and shuffled out of the pub without a word.

Tilda could not conceal her anger. Her fist clenched where it lay on the bar. “No,” she ground out. “They got away.”

He regarded her quietly before saying, “I gathered as much.” They were the only two left in the room now. The music had switched off at some point. Even the barman had disappeared. He waited until she visibly relaxed before continuing.

“I have a business proposal,” he said, his voice a gravelly rasp beneath the hood of his coat.

Tilda said nothing and poured her third tequila shot, downing it in one hit. Her companion’s glass remained untouched.

“Talon could restore your wealth. Get you out of the country. Give you purpose again. You can start over.”

Tilda did not move. She let no expression of emotion betray her. Her eyes strayed to the news ticker once more.

“I dunno,” she said finally. “Last time I got involved with you Talon blokes, it didn’t really work out for me.”

He tensed slightly. “We gave you the intel that you paid for. If you screwed it up after that, that’s got nothing to do with Talon.”

Tilda poured her fourth tequila shot. She left it on the table and stared at it for a moment.

“Overwatch came after me because of you,” she muttered. “They ruined me because one of your men got sloppy and left a clue behind which lead them to me. Now look where I am.” She reared back on her bar stool and gestured around as though to indicate her current predicament.

He said nothing for some time. And so they sat in silence.

“I know how that feels,” he rasped at her eventually. “Overwatch ruined me too. Revenge is the only thing left for me now.”

She regarding him thoughtfully. The way he had said that suggested it was probably a long story, one that could be told when they both had more time, but one she was interested in hearing.

“Talon would give you a chance to reap your revenge too,” he went on. “Against Overwatch and _Jamison Fawkes_ ,” he said with emphasis.

That made her ears perk up, but she kept her expression blank and instead lifted her glass of tequila so she could examine it closely. She wanted revenge against that filthy junkrat, certainly. Talon could give her that chance. She relished the thought. If given the opportunity, she would make Fawkes watch as she destroyed everything he held dear, and then she would make him suffer a slow death.

“I have the means to get you out of the country tonight,” he added, interrupting her thoughts. “And you would be well compensated.”

She laughed. “You know my one weakness.”

He said nothing while she seemed to sit and consider his proposal. Tilda smiled darkly. Money, power and revenge would all be within her grasp if she joined Talon. It was an offer she couldn’t refuse. She lifted her last tequila shot, threw her head back and swallowed it in one gulp. She smirked again before offering a reply.

“Well, then. Let’s get started.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hope you liked it.


End file.
